EqualPay Day 2022 – Take Action

Best way to Support Pay Equality on #EqualPayDay (March 15, 2022)

1. Support the ERA… Message your Senator to remove the deadline: https://www.votervoice.net/Zonta/Campaigns/77341/Respond

2. Message your Legislators to suppor the Equal Pay Act https://www.votervoice.net/Zonta/Campaigns/80057/Respond #ERA #EqualPay #EqualPay2022

Why March 15?

According to U.S. Census data, in 2021, the average U.S. woman was paid only 83 cents for every $1 paid to the average man. In other words, U.S. women must work an extra 3 ½ months to catch up with men’s earnings. That means the average woman loses more than $10,000 every year to pay discrimination. Or, if you’re looking at a 9-5 workday, the average woman starts working for free at 2:40 p.m.

To put this into perspective, if the gender wage gap were eliminated, the average woman would have enough additional money every year for:

• An entire additional year of child care;
• One year of tuition and fees for a 4-year public university, or the full cost of tuition and fees for a 2-year college;
• More than 9 months of rent for the following year;
• 7 months of health insurance (premiums through employer-based plans);
• More than a year’s worth of food; OR
• Enough money to pay off their student loan debt in under 4 years.

For women of color, the statistics are much worse. The information above is an average for all U.S. women. With our Equal Pay Today partners, we raise awareness about the wage gap for women of color throughout the year: AANHPI women have to work until May 3 this year to catch up with the average white man’s earnings from 2021, because they’re paid only 75 cents per $1 paid to white men; for Black women, it’s Sept. 29, at 57 cents; for Native and Indigenous women, it’s Dec. 1, at 50 cents; and Latina women are paid the least, an abysmal 49 cents per $1 paid to the average white man. We and our partner organizations will recognize Latina Equal Pay Day on Dec. 8 this year, but it actually shouldn’t be recognized until 2023, since Latinas have to work more than twice as long to catch up with white men.  (content courtesy of EqualRights.org)