BLACK WOMEN’S EQUAL PAY DAY
July 28, 2015
Thank you for helping us make Black Women’s Equal Pay Day and the #ClockOut4EqualPay campaign a huge success on social media!
I’ve taken my selfie and I’ve tweeted. What else can I do?
Click here to see the @BBCTrending video about #BlackWomenEqualPay.
Did you know that Black women make only 64¢ to the white male dollar? On average, a Black woman would have to work an additional 208 days into 2015 to make what a white man earned in the 2014 calendar year. That is, a Black woman would need to work from January 1, 2014 until July 28, 2015 to make what a white man earned by December 31, 2014.
Over the course of a 40-year career, Black women would typically lose $775,000 to the wage gap – this means that a Black woman would have to work almost 63 years to earn what a white man would make in 40 years.1
How You Can #ClockOut4EqualPay on Social Media
On or before July 28th:
1. Take a selfie holding the symbolic time card graphic that you can post on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any other social media platform on July 28th.
The goal of the picture is to show you metaphorically clocking out of work at 2:07 p.m.—the time (64% into a regular 9-5 workday) that the average Black woman would leave work to account for the typical wage gap if she were paid at the same hourly rate as the average white man. We want to see pictures from ALL demographic groups, regardless of whether you are employed. A diverse group of participants will make this an incredibly powerful tool to build the nationwide solidarity we need to end pay inequity!
2. Attend our Facebook event and invite your friends to join us!
On July 28th:
1. Post your selfie on on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or any other social media platforms. Mention us in your tweets @Women4Equality, and use the hashtags #BlackWomenEqualPay and #ClockOut4EqualPay. Let’s make this a trending topic!
2. Share information about Black Women’s Equal Pay Day using the hashtags #BlackWomenEqualPay and #ClockOut4EqualPay.
Feel free to use some of these sample tweets, or create your own!
- July 28, 2015 is Black Women’s Equal Pay Day. Equal pay for equal work. #BlackWomenEqualPay #ClockOut4EqualPay
- Join the Black Women Equal Pay Day Twitter storm on July 28, 2-3pm by tweeting a selfie with a symbolic time card! #BlackWomenEqualPay
- $0.64 isn’t change for $1, so why pay a Black woman $0.64 when a white man would get $1? #BlackWomenEqualPay
- For each $1 men earn, the avg woman makes $0.78, but Black women only make $0.64 to the white male $1. #BlackWomenEqualPay
- Black women have to work 208 extra days into 2015 to July 28, 2015 to take home what white men made in 2014. #BlackWomenEqualPay
- Black women must work almost 19 months to make what a white man makes in 12 months. Does that sound fair? #BlackWomenEqualPay
- Black women make on avg $19,399 less than men every year, or $775,000 less over a 40-year career. #BlackWomenEqualPay
- Black women with a B.A. are only paid what a white man with some college but w/o a degree earn. Does that sound fair? #BlackWomenEqualPay
- Pay discrimination is an unacceptable injustice. #BlackWomenEqualPay #ClockOut4EqualPay
You can also post our Black Women’s Equal Pay Day infographics!
3. Follow Atlanta Women for Equality on social media throughout the day for updates! You can find us on Facebook, Twitter (@Women4Equality), Pinterest, and Instagram (@AtlantaWomen4Equality).
I’ve taken my selfie and I’ve tweeted. What else can I do?
WHY WE NEED BLACK WOMEN’S EQUAL PAY DAY
The Wage Gap’s Impact on Families
On average, Black women earn $19,399 less than white men every year.2 In 2013 dollars, this is enough to pay for:3 View and download infographics here!
- Feeding a household of four for two years with over $4,200 to spare
- The median cost of rent and utilities for one year with $9,200 to spare
- Full-time child care for a four-year-old for two years with $3,800 to spare
- Health insurance premiums in an employer-sponsored program for four years with over $1,700 to spare
- Student loan payments for four years with over $3,700 to spare
- More than 300 tanks of gas with $1,000 to spare
Across Occupations4
- Black women working as physicians and surgeons make 52¢ for every dollar paid to their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts.
- Black women working as customer service representatives make 79¢ for every dollar paid to their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts.
- Black women working as personal care aides make 85¢ for every dollar paid to their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts.
- Black women working as construction laborers make 86¢ for every dollar paid to their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts.
Low-Wage Workforce
Black women are overrepresented in some of the most poorly paid jobs in the nation, such as child care workers, restaurant servers, and housekeepers.5
- Black women make up 11.6% of the low-wage workforce, nearly double their share of the overall workforce, 6.1%. In comparison, white, non-Hispanic men’s share of the low wage workforce, 15.9%, is less than half their share of the overall workforce, 35%.
- Even within the low-wage workforce, Black women working full-time, year-round are typically paid just 84% of what their white male counterparts make.6
Upward Mobility
The wage gap may make it more difficult for Black women to move upward through the middle class.
- Only 26% of minority women live in families with an income considered to be “upper-middle-class and above,” defined as an income of $58,000 or more. However, 46% of white women and 60% of white men have achieved this level of family income.7
- Women overall have seen their annual earnings increase by 32% since 1974, but Black women’s annual earnings have increased only 22%.8
Poverty Rates
In 2013, the Federal Poverty Level for a family of four was $23,624.9
- A Black woman working full-time, year-round who was a relatively low-wage earner (at the 25th percentile) for her racial group and sex in 2013 did not earn enough to bring a family of four above the Federal Poverty Level. In contrast, a white, non-Hispanic man working full-time, year-round who was a relatively low-wage earner for his racial group and sex earned $35,000 per year, well above the Federal Poverty Level.10
Single Mothers
Black women are more likely than white, non-Hispanic women to be heads of households, and many of these women support families on their own.11
- Married couples with children reported median family incomes in 2013 of $84,916, while Black female-headed families with children reported only $22,575.12
- The Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that 31% of Black women reported having a “somewhat difficult” or “very difficult” time paying for food for their families, compared to 22% of white women.13 In addition, 52% of Black women reported having a “somewhat difficult” or “very difficult” time paying monthly utility bills, compared to 34% of white women.14
For more information about a key step toward fair pay for Black women, a fair minimum wage, see the National Women’s Law Center’s fact sheet.
- Black women’s full-time median earnings were $34,089, while white, non-Hispanic men’s were $53,488 in 2013. See U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2014 Annual Social and Economic Supplement, Table PINC-05: Work Experience in 2013 – People 15 Years Old and Over by Total Money Earnings in 2013, Age, Race, Hispanic Origin, and Sex available at http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/cpstables/032014/perinc/pinc05_000.htm.
- Id.
- For monthly calculations, see National Women’s Law Center, How the Wage Gap Hurts Women and Families, fn. 1, available at http://www.nwlc.org/sites/default/files/5.11.15_how_the_wage_gap_hurts_women_and_families.pdf.
- See American Community Survey 2008-2012 (5-year average), available at https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/samples. See also National Women’s Law Center, Equal Pay for African-American Women, available at http://www.nwlc.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/equal_pay_for_afam_women.pdf.
- The “low-wage workforce” includes workers in jobs that typically pay $10.10 or less per hour. See National Women’s Law Center, Underpaid and Overloaded: Women in Low-Wage Jobs (July 2014) at 14, available at http://www.nwlc.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/final_nwlc_lowwagereport2014.pdf.
- Id. at 17.
- Note that statistic includes all minority women. Vicki Lovell, Heidi Hartmann, and Claudia Williams, Women at Greater Risk of Economic Insecurity: A Gender Analysis of the Rockefeller Foundation’s American Worker Survey (2008), available at http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/women-at-greater-risk-of-economic-insecurity-a-gender-analysis-of-the-rockefeller-foundation2019s-american-worker-survey.
- Wages for white, non-Hispanic women have increased 38% in the same period. See U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2014 Annual Social and Economic Supplement, Table P-38: Full-Time, Year-Round Workers by Median Earnings and Sex, available at http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/historical/people/.
- The Federal Poverty Level assumes a family of four with two adults and two children. U.S. Census Bureau, 2013 Poverty Thresholds by Size of Family and Number of Children, available at https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/threshld/index.html.
- See National Women’s Law Center calculations based on U.S. Census Bureau, 2013 Current Population Survey data, Closing the Wage Gap is Crucial for Women of Color and Their Families, fn. 16, available at http://www.nwlc.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/closing_the_wage_gap_is_crucial_for_woc_and_their_families_2015.pdf.
- Id. at fn.14.
- See U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2014 Annual Social and Economic Supplement, Table FINC-03: Presence of Related Children Under 18 Years Old – All Families by Total Money Income in 2013, Type of Family, Work Experience in 2013, Race and Hispanic Origin of Reference Person, available at http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/cpstables/032014/faminc/finc03_000.htm.
- Jeff Hayes and Heidi Hartmann, Women and Men: Living on the Edge: Economic Insecurity After the Great Recession (Sept. 2011), IWPR/Rockefeller Survey of Economic Security, Table 4.8 Current Difficulty Paying for Basic Needs, available at http://www.iwpr.org/initiatives/iwpr-rockefeller-report/rockefeller-publications.
- Id. at Table 4.9 Current Difficulty Paying Monthly Bills and Expenses.