Today is Latina Equal Pay Day and did you know that Latinas ONLY make just 53 cent for every dollar the average white, non-Hispanic man makes? In order for Latina women to make anywhere near what the average white man earns, she would have to work 305 extra days in the next calendar year and there’s absolutely nothing fair about that. Here’s everything you need to know about this day and why it’s so important.
We’re getting paid less than before.
What’s particularly frustrating about these numbers is that last year the Latina wage gap was 54 cents for every dollar the average white, non-Hispanic man made, and now it’s 53. In other words, we’re actually going backward. This is a huge problem.
It hurts us the most.
The pay gap affects all women but it actually hurts Latinas the most. According to the American Association of University Women (AAUW), if the current pace doesn’t change the gap will not close until 2106. We shouldn’t have to wait 88 years to finally be paid equally.
Latina Equal Pay Day is celebrated to bring awareness to this gap.
In fact, according to Forbes, a Latina can lose up to $1 million over the course of her working life because of the wage gap. How unfair is that? But closing the gap could mean adding more than $26,000 to her annual salary. That could cover everything from the full cost of tuition and fees at a two-year community college, 18 additional months of mortgage and utility payments, three additional years of child care, and three-and-a-half years of groceries. That is a lot!
This gap hurts Latinx families.
Mainly because more than half of all Latinas living in the U.S. are actually the primary breadwinners in their homes, resulting in Latinx families remaining in poverty.
There’s a Phenomenally Latina T-shirt going viral right now.
The funds from the T-shirt purchases help benefit the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. Visit www.phenomenalwoman.us to help out.
Latina celebs are participating in the movement.
Gina Rodriguez posted this earlier today and pointed out how the wage gap is such an injustice.
Jenna Ortega highlighted the issue on her IG as well.
There is still so much work to be done for Latinas to finally get paid equally.
America Ferrera had A LOT to say about this.
“ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME!!? The year is ALMOST OVER and just TODAY is #LatinaEqualPay Day, when we “catch up” to what white, non-Hispanic men were paid in 2017, WTF??? she captioned this IG post.
Zoe Saldana and her sisters got involved too.
Equal pay is a social right and economic empowerment leads to female empowerment.
Latinas are the largest ethnic group in the U.S. behind whites.
This not only hurts Latinas but it hurts the country overall because everyone—all companies—benefit from diversity in the long run.
How can we address this gender wage gap problem?
Eva Longoria actually had some good ideas she mentioned in an op-ed she wrote last year for Fortune. “The first step is a cultural shift in which we acknowledge our unconscious bias and, as a society, believe women when they say the wage gap isn’t a matter of personal choice (e.g taking time to raise children, not asking for a promotion), but rather a symptom of systemic gender discrimination.”
