The Pay Gap Is Even Worse for Black Women, and That’s Everyone’s Problem

The Pay Gap Is Even Worse for Black Women, and That’s Everyone’s Problem


Would you like to work seven extra months for free just to earn the same paycheck as your male co-workers? We didn’t think so. Unfortunately, if you’re a black woman in the United States, that’s a likely reality.



Black women were paid 64 percent of what non-Hispanic white men were paid in 2013. That means it takes the typical black woman nearly seven extra months—to July 28—to be paid what the average white man took home back on December 31. That’s even worse than the national pay gap for all women, 78 percent, as reported in AAUW’s report, The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap. Think about how that adds up in the course of a career, and we’re talking about losing a daunting chunk of change over a lifetime.

Why is this happening? Looking at industry helps us understand some of the gap—but not all of it. Black women are more likely than women nationally to work in the lowest-paying occupations (like service, health care support, and education) and less likely to work in the higher-paying engineering and tech fields or managerial positions.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the percentage of black women who are full-time minimum-wage workers is higher than that of any other racial group. To make matters worse, there’s an even bigger pay gap in the service industry, where black women are paid on average just 60 percent of what male servers are paid. That’s why a livable minimum wage is crucial for all women (who make up two-thirds of tipped workers), and especially black women.

On top of being overrepresented at the low-paying end of the spectrum, black women are underrepresented at the top. Black women make up a scant 1 percent of the high-paying engineering workforce and 3 percent of computing. And these are the fields where the gender pay gap is the smallest! Among the few who do break into these careers, discriminatory pay and promotion practices and the hostile environment drive many out.



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http://msmagazine.com/blog/2015/07/28/the-pay-gap-is-even-worse-for-black-women-and-thats-everyones-problem/