Women and the wage gap
Washington—Today is Equal Pay Day, which should be a topic of conversation among the 53% of the U.S. population who are women. The date falls on the day which women’s annual earnings catch up with what men made in 2011—that’s an extra 14 weeks that women must work to equal the earnings of men.
According to the latest data from the National Partnership for Women & Families released today, there are significant costs of the country’s gender-based wage gap. The median yearly pay for women in the United States is $10,784 less than their male counterparts. African American women and Latinas fare worse: African American woman’s median is $19,575; Latinas is $23,873.
If the gap were eliminated, women in the state of Washington could buy an additional 1.7 years’ worth of food.Colorado’s working women could afford 2,746 more gallons of gas. Women in Wisconsin could afford 14 more months of rent, and Connecticut women could pay for 3.7 years’ worth of family health insurance premiums.
The National Partnership’s data spans all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Each of the reports, along with charts ranking the states by wage gap for all women and women of color, are available at www.nationalpartnership.org/epd.
“This new analysis illustrates just how much harm the wage gap does to women and families throughout the country, and especially to women of color where the gap between the wages paid to women and men is staggering,” said National Partnership president Debra L. Ness. “With state economies struggling and women increasingly serving as the sole or co-breadwinners for their families, tens of thousands of dollars in lost wages each year takes a tremendous toll.”
The National Partnership for Women & Families is a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group dedicated to promoting fairness in the workplace, access to quality health care, and policies that help women and men meet the dual demands of work and family.
