With July 10 recognized as Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, statistics reveal that African American women earn substantially less than non-Hispanic white males.
The annual date signifies how far into the year Black women need to work to earn what white men earned in the previous year. This year, Black women earn, on average, 64 cents for every dollar earned by white men, according to Equal Pay Today, an organization dedicated to closing the gender and racial wage gap.
Equal Pay Today reported that the gap is influenced by factors like occupational segregation, lack of pay transparency, and discrimination in hiring and promotions.
With the congressional passage and the signing into law of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act by President Trump as a factor in keeping, if not widening the pay gap, the National Association for Women released a statement on July 8 saying, “Black women are still underpaid and overburdened.”
“Equal Pay Day shows how far we have to go even as this so-called budget reconciliation bill will push us even further back,” said Mica Whitfield, co-director of the National Association of Working Women. “Cutting food, health care, and reproductive rights are political choices that hurt real people. We need investment in care, good jobs, paid leave, affordable housing, and freedom to make decisions about our own bodies. We need leaders who listen to those closest to the pain. Most of all, we need each other. We need to organize. We need to vote, and we need to build power from the ground up.”
