It’s Black Women’s Equal Pay Day: What Would Kamala Harris Earn as VP?
Advocates for equal pay for women are celebrating the historic announcement of Sen. Kamala Harris as the Democratic vice-presidential pick. In recent years, women’s groups have been tracking structural pay inequities based both on gender and race, and Sen. Harris has been taking action to end those disparities. She co-sponsored the Paycheck Fairness Act, which addresses wage discrimination based on sex. During the presidential primary race, she released a plan to require employers to provide an Equal Pay Certification demonstrating that they are paying women wages comparable to men’s.
Each year, advocates use pay disparity data to calculate Equal Pay Days for various demographics, which illustrate how long a woman must work into the current year in order to achieve the same income that her white, non-Hispanic, male counterparts made in the previous year.
This year, Black Women’s Equal Pay Day is August 13. But this is no ordinary Equal Pay Day. It falls in the midst of a worldwide pandemic that has seeped into every aspect of our lives, bringing unemployment, illness, and death. Everyone has been impacted in ways that range from small to monumental. But for Black people, the pandemic joins historic forces that have weighed on our freedoms and stolen our opportunities for generations.
Economic disparities are most glaring in household wealth, comprising both inherited and earned income. Historically, Black families have faced barriers to wealth-building, resulting in the stark reality that, in 2016, the average Black middle-class household had $13,024 in assets, compared with the average white middle-class household with $149,703. In 2014, the median wealth of white women was reported to be $45,000, compared to a mere $100 for African American women and $120 for Latinas. Wealth determines whether you can survive a crisis, pay off student loans, stave off financial disaster related to a health crisis, or take advantage of opportunities that could improve your financial situation. Having household wealth also means that if you lose your job during a pandemic, you can keep a roof overhead, put food on the table and keep the lights on, at least for a while.
On average, Black women don’t have these guarantees even though we have the highest labor force participation of all women. Black women earn, on average, 62 cents for every dollar earned by white non-Hispanic men. Occupational segregation is one of the primary reasons for this disparity, resulting in an overrepresentation of Black women in service and administrative support jobs that pay lower wages. However higher wage earners are also denied pay equity. We only need to look at the four-time World Cup-winning National Women’s Soccer League and their fight for parity within the United States Soccer Federation to see a fundamental, highly structured pattern of wage theft across the nation.
The disparities have only worsened since 1968. For most Black women, there is nothing to fall back on during a pandemic. How far can that $100 take you when you’ve lost your job? Without serious financial interventions, the coronavirus pandemic will result in even deeper economic despair. In a recent poll, more than one in five Black families responded that they are food insecure and homelessness nationwide is expected to hit communities of color in far greater numbers than the white community.
In addition to wealth and wage disparities, Black women are also more likely to be denied the benefits that we all need: paid sick days, paid family leave, retirement security, and healthcare. This has been especially evident during the pandemic. The coronavirus relief bills excluded as many 106 million workers, many of whom are essential employees in foodservice, healthcare, childcare, and other professions overrepresented by people of color.
Kamala Harris doesn’t have to worry, since her salary is codified into law. If elected vice president, she will make as much as her male predecessor. But we’re counting on her to keep fighting for equal pay for all of us, no matter what position she holds.
