Equal Pay Day: Working An Additional Four Months to Break Even

When put into small numbers, like 77 cents to the dollar, the wage gap between women and men doesn't seem so bad, right? Wrong. Looking at the bigger picture, the gender wage gap is a big issue - an extra $11,000/year issue.

April 9th, 2013 marked the last day a woman needed to work in order to make the same wages as her male counterpart for 2012. Women make $11,000 less annually compared to men, in order to catch up to a man's 2012 salary, a woman would have had to continue working till April 9th, 2013. To sum it up, it takes women 16 months of work to earn the same amount a man would make in 12 months. Unfortunately, it doesn't stop there for women of color.

The wage gap for women of color is significantly larger than that of white women. The National Women's Law Center (NWLC) reports that African American women make 64 cents to the dollar of a white man and Hispanic women only make a mere 55 cents to the dollar. There's no denying there's a direct correlation to race and gender regarding the wage gap. Sexuality plays a huge role as well, a household with a lesbian couple will earn significantly less than a household with a man. Since women are typically the primary caregivers, a household with no male presence and children to support is at a financial disadvantage.

For myself, a 20-something single Hispanic woman still attending college, the list of things I could do with an extra $11,000 would include - paying off most of my student loans, or paying most of the years rent, maybe buying car, or even invest in some stock. For single mothers, $11,000/year would mean a hell of a lot more.

An additional $11,000/year would mean a drastic change in quality of life for all women. Acts like the Paycheck Fairness Act, currently pending in congress, would protect employees from discrimination and offer wage negotiation training programs. Giving women the tools to protect themselves from wage discrimination and negotiate more effectively will help them to become more conscious of their worth.


More information and statistics on the repercussions of the gender wage gap can be found at National Women's Law Center

More on the Paycheck Fairness Act can be found at National Partnership for Women & Families