HOUSTON – Equal Pay Day symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, women’s annual earnings were 82.3 percent of men’s—and the gap was even wider for women of color. Black women were paid 63 percent of what non-Hispanic white men were paid in 2019, according to the U.S. Census. In other words, it takes the typical Black woman 19 months to earn what the average white man takes home in 12 months, NBC News reported.
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Equal Pay Day originated with the National Committee on Pay Equity in 1996 as a public awareness event to illustrate the gap between men’s and women’s wages. It was originally called “National Pay Inequity Awareness Day” and changed to Equal Pay Day in 1998, according to the Washington-based National Committee on Pay Equity, a coalition of women’s and civil rights organizations and others devoted to eliminating sex- and race-based wage discrimination and to achieve pay equity.
Here are some of the efforts seen today on social media that look toward closing the gender wage gap:
I do not think in the year 2021 that we should continue to accept a reality which sees women paid just $0.82 for every $1 men are paid for doing the same job. I believe we can achieve economic justice in this country — that means equal pay for equal work. #EqualPayDay
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 24, 2021
American women had to work nearly three months into 2021 to be paid what an American man made in 2020.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 24, 2021
Black women and Latinas have to wait and work even longer.
It's past time to address the wage gap. #EqualPayDayhttps://t.co/r2WM3ctrHQ
Women risked their health on the frontlines of this pandemic.
— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) March 24, 2021
Women are helping us get vaccinated and save lives.
Women deserve to be paid equally for the same work as their male counterparts.#EqualPayDay pic.twitter.com/73QVbfpFHH
“There is no level of status, and there is no accomplishment or power, that will protect you from the clutches of inequality — one cannot simply outperform inequality" -Megan Rapinoe (@mPinoe) live now at @OversightDems #EqualPayDay hearing. pic.twitter.com/IqIeRMV0kS
— Carolyn B. Maloney (@RepMaloney) March 24, 2021
In a typical work day, the wage gap looks like this:
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) March 24, 2021
🕔 Men are paid for a full 9-5 day
🕑 Women in similar positions start working for free at 2:40 PM
We need equal pay now. #EqualPayDay pic.twitter.com/t7EH3xoSFQ
Equal work deserves equal pay, regardless of gender or race. And on this #EqualPayDay, we're reflecting on how COVID-19 has further exposed the devastating consequences of the systemic issues that result in lower wages for working women — especially for many women of color. pic.twitter.com/Luoo9Tiopv
— Secretary Marty Walsh (@SecMartyWalsh) March 24, 2021
‘You want stadiums filled? We filled them … there’s no reason why we’re underpaid for the exception of gender’ — @mpinoe asks what else the USNWT has to do to get equal pay #EqualPayDay pic.twitter.com/YkQj3S2yhS
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) March 24, 2021
Women are in the red. Literally. Women have to work until March 24th to make the same amount of money a man made from the previous year. The pay gap is getting worse despite pressure and demands to improve it. #equalpayday pic.twitter.com/AhzBDeSB60
— Kristin Pierce (@KPierceTV) March 24, 2021
Today is #EqualPayDay, marking how far into the year an American woman must work, on average, to earn as much as a man earned in the previous year.
— Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) March 24, 2021
Let's make this commemoration obsolete by passing the #PaycheckFairnessAct.