America’s Wage Gap: Black Women Earn Much Less Than Their White Counterparts

“If we don’t act now to ensure equal pay, for many women of color, the cost of the lifetime wage gap will surpass a million dollars. We literally can’t afford to ignore this,” Emily Martin, vice president for workplace justice at the NWLC warns.

Annually, the people of America remind themselves of how wide their wage gap is getting with each passing year. A special day is set aside every year in the month of April to connote the extent of extra work women are to do just so they could come even with the wages received by their male colleagues in the previous year.

Records have it that, women in America make 79 cents for every dollar a man receives. Nonetheless, the difference between the wages received by women and that of men is even appalling in the case of the African-American. According to statistics, a Black-American is paid 63 cents for every dollar a white man receives.

For this reason, the African-American Women’s Equal Pay Day was instituted. The 23rd August celebration is for Black women to bridge the wage gap between them and their white male counterparts, according to the Huffington Post.

The wide disparity in wage between the Black woman and the white man calls for the need for the Black woman to work for about 8 months extra just to pull even with what her white male counterpart earned the previous year.

According to findings by the National Women’s Law Center, the African-American woman is predicted to lose a huge sum of over $877,000 over a 40-year career period.

Speaking on the issue, the Vice President for workplace justice at the NWLC stated that “African-American women shouldn’t need to work more than 66 years to earn what a white man earns in 40 years.” She further warned that “If we don’t act now to ensure equal pay, for many women of color, the cost of the lifetime wage gap will surpass a million dollars. We literally can’t afford to ignore this.”

Another report entitled “The Lifetime Wage Gap by State for African-American Women,” also disclosed that the wage gap for Black women in some states in the U.S has already gone beyond a million dollars. According to the report, not even the highly educated Black woman escapes the wage discrimination in America.

Moreover, the American Association of University Women also revealed that the Black woman is denied access to paid sick leave. Since the inception of the African-American Women’s Equal Pay Day, many have added their voices to the call to end wage discrimination against Black woman.

It seems the racism factor has eaten deep into the American culture that one can find traces of it in almost every sector of the nation’s administration. So now we even wonder; where and how can Black people get justice in America? The police and judicial services have already been inundated with racism and now the financial service? In the meanwhile, Black people form the core of those responsible for making the country rich and famous. This is evident in the area of sports. Also, the most educated group in the country is Blacks yet they are the ones treated as non-humans.

Source:Atlanta Black Star

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