It’s, unfortunately, no surprise that Black women still make much less than their white, male counterparts – but by how much exactly?
According to a Black Enterprise article, the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) reported that Black women who hold down full-time jobs make roughly $1 million less than white men throughout the duration of their careers.
The male-female wage gap touches women of every race, however, it hits Black women the hardest.
The article added that Black female workers earn $0.63 cents for every dollar a white man earns. That figure totals to over $2,000 a month, or about $964,400 over 40 years.
The study shows that, in so many words, for a Black woman to reach the same level of financial footing that a white man has, she would have to work until she is 83 years old to, while a White man reaches that mark at 60 years old. A number of employed Black workers are knowledgeable of this fact but more responsibility needs to be on the shoulders of those keeping in place the wage gap, according to the article.
“I don’t think it’s talked about as much as it should be,” Tiffany Williams, a business and marketing strategist, said to AfroTech. “The wage gap is so prominent because there’s a lack of understanding on ways you should negotiate your salary as well as there’s still a lack in employee and training support to help enhance employees’ work style.”
Although according to statistics, more women are gaining momentum and outpacing men when it comes to obtaining degrees, they are not out-earning these same men. Not to mention at the start of the pandemic last year, women, Black women, were particularly showing up to work and creating their own lane and means for a more lucrative cash flow. Yet, as many Americans experienced, the job market took a hit as the pandemic set back 20 million Americans who were forced into unemployment; Black women were among the initial ones to be taken out of these numerous positions.
The NWLC study added that the unemployment rate for Black women climbed to 16.6% in May 2020 and stayed at a high level through November 2020. In June 2021, the number for the unemployment rate for Black women was cut in half to about 8.5%.
According to the article, the COVID-19 pandemic still remained another obstacle for Black women who could not easily come back into the workforce. From parents leery of germs at childcare facilities and keeping their offspring at home to being unable to truly juggle work/home life balance – it was a lot for the Black woman; the Black mother.
But, there is still hope.
The article mentioned that according to the NWLC, to be able to shrink the wage gap, employers should start investing more purposefully into more minority female employees. Also, the government might have to be involved in this broader conversation when it comes to boosting equal pay laws while increasing childcare facility affordability, minimum wage and more.
“These far-reaching effects of the COVID-19 crisis threaten to reverberate for years to come and exacerbate pre-existing racial and gender wage gaps. Black women need a recovery that centers them and their needs. They need action that closes the wage gap,” the report states in the article.
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