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Unequal Pay Day for Black and Latina Women
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Unequal Pay Day for Black and Latina Women

The Gender Wage Gap Is Even Worse for Many Women of Color

Julie Ajinkya presents the basic facts about the deep pay inequality facing so many women of color in our economy today.

Advancing Racial Equity and Justice, Building an Economy for All, Economy, +4 More

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Lacqrecia Verley, center, Daniqua Williams, second from right, and Seiella Springer, right, join a line of hundreds of people seeking to apply for employment at an M&M's World store in New York. Black and Latina women are disproportionately unemployed and paid less for their work.  (AP/Mark Lennihan)
Lacqrecia Verley, center, Daniqua Williams, second from right, and Seiella Springer, right, join a line of hundreds of people seeking to apply for employment at an M&M's World store in New York. Black and Latina women are disproportionately unemployed and paid less for their work.  (AP/Mark Lennihan)

Equal Pay Day tomorrow highlights how many days into 2012 women must work to earn what men earned in 2011. Sadly, the earnings of many women of color continue to lag even further behind those of their white counterparts. Women overall earn less on average than men, and this means that they must work longer for the same amount of pay. But the wage gap is even greater for women of color. And other indicators show that they also face greater levels of economic insecurity—they are also disproportionately unemployed, more often live in households in poverty, and more often head households living in poverty. Our chart tells the tale.

Unequal pay day for Black and Latina women

Julie Ajinkya is a Policy Analyst with the 2050 Project at the Center for American Progress.

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Authors

Julie Ajinkya

Policy Analyst