Today is Equal Pay Day, or the day that marks how many extra days the average US woman must work into 2014, to earn as much as her average male counterpart in 2013. Given this momentous occasion to spotlight gender wage inequality in America, let’s take a brief look at the wage gap, why it matters, and what our President is doing about it today!
Did you know there is a gap inside the gap?
According to US census statistics, the average, full-time, female worker in America makes 77 cents to the dollar of what the average, full-time, male worker earns. But this statistic only refers to White women. The wage gap is far wider and deeper for women of color in the US, who face both a larger disparity in pay deferential and also fewer opportunities to rectify this great imbalance. The average African-American female worker makes 64 cents to the dollar and the average Latino female worker only makes 53! Part of that deferential is related to lower educational attainment among African-American and Latino women. And yet, “you can’t educate your way out of the gap!” Even as higher education raises everyone’s wage, African-American and Latino women continue to earn less than their White peers with the same educational background. This reveals a racial gap, inside the gender gap that may reflect discriminatory hiring practices, disparate access to meaningful employment by neighborhood or region, and disparate opportunities for upward mobility for professional women of color.
There is also geographic variation in the wage gap. Check out this chart to see how your state compares to Washington, DC or Wyoming, the areas with the smallest and largest gender wage gap in the US!
Why does the gender wage gap matter?
Since 1960, the number of women who are the primary wage-earners for their household has almost quadrupled, such that women now comprise nearly two-thirds of the breadwinners or co-breadwinners in their family. And as it turns out, more than 6 and 10 of the women who are the primary breadwinners in their home, are single mothers.
That means, average American families are increasingly depending on the earning power of women to make ends meet.
So when Mom brings home 23% percent less than her male counterparts (remember, that percentage can be as high as 44% less for Latino women), that is less income for everyday needs including healthcare, less investment in our children’s futures and education, and when added over a lifetime of work, significantly less for retirement.
AND, as a pediatrician, I know that children who live in poverty are more likely to have poor health as adults, including increased risk for cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, and depression. What is more, there is evidence to suggest that these risks persist, despite changing social class in adulthood. So in many ways, investing in women is also vital to our country’s health and wellness!
So what is today’s big news?
Today, President Obama continued his commitment to the economic empowerment of women by signing one executive order and one presidential memorandum that take the legislative steps necessary to level the pay-ing field for women, well at least, female federal employees. This week the US Senate is also considering the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would extend the standards put forward by the President’s executive order to all employers covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act. To see President Obama’s complete legislative agenda to address gender income inequality click here!
And finally, any quality discussion of income inequality would be remiss to leave out the debate on minimum wage. Suffice it to say, raise the wage! Doing so, would especially benefit women who are more likely to occupy low-wage sectors of the labor force or to participate in part-time work (given many women’s commitment to their education or their growing family). It is also estimated that increasing the national minimum wage may be essential to lifting more than half of our working poor families out of poverty.
As Martin Luther King Jr said in his 1965 commencement address at Oberlin College, “The time is always right to do right.” And for income inequality in America, that time is now.