Latina Equal Pay Day 2019

Wednesday, November 20, 2019, marked Latinas’ Equal Pay Day, the symbolic day when Hispanic and Latina women’s earnings “catch up” to non-Hispanic white men’s earnings from the previous year. Latinas are paid 54 percent of what non-Hispanic white men are paid. That means it takes Latinas almost an entire extra year of full-time, year-round work in order to be paid what the average non-Hispanic white man took home by December 31.

The massive wage gap adds up: A Latina may lose up to $1 million over the course of her working lifetime. Closing the wage gap would add more than $26,000 to the annual salary of Latinas. This would cover:

The full cost of tuition and fees at a two-year community college
18 additional months of mortgage and utility payments
3 additional years of child care
3.7 years of groceries

With more than half of all Latinas being the primary breadwinner in their households, this gap hurts families and the economy, contributing to a cycle of poverty.

Economic empowerment is female empowerment. Equal pay is a business imperative. Diversity is good for the bottom line, and Latinas are the second-largest ethnic group behind whites. If your company doesn’t look like our population, you will lose out. Corporations who don’t offer equal pay for equal work to their Latina employees will fail to attract and retain them, which may be why more Latinas are starting a business than any other group. In fact, Latina-owned businesses grew by 172% last year.

Mind you none of this information even highlights the economic disparities of women in the agricultural workforce!

Today and every day, let’s make equal pay for equal work the norm.