Linda Goler Blount, MPH, President, Black Women's Health Imperative, improving health and wellness for Black women and girls.
getty
For the past four years, Equal Pay Day has aligned with Women’s History Month, highlighting the slothful wage gap between men and women. This annual marker illustrates how much additional time—from the start of the year—women have to work to earn what men earned the year before.
This year’s Equal Pay Day fell on March 12, meaning it took an additional three and a half months for women’s pay to catch up with men’s. On average, this translates to a loss of $900,000 in a woman’s lifetime. Although this wage gap is a staggering statistic alone, Equal Pay Day barely scratches the surface of the much deeper pay disparities that exist among women.
Equal Pay Day is only representative of the average, not the reality of many. For many groups, Equal Pay Day falls much later in the year. For Asian American women, it falls on April 3; for Black women, July 9; and for Latina women, October 3, illustrating that white women are nearer to closing the wage gap with men than their counterparts.
Pay disparities are complex and deeply entwined with factors like available opportunities, fields of work, biases and external burdens, such as career gaps due to childcare responsibilities. The argument that women predominantly occupy lower-paying roles does little to address the root causes of this disparity and highlights the issue that careers more common among women, such as nurse's aides, are not valued more.
Further, the lack of female representation in the executive ranks of traditionally female-dominated professions must not be overlooked. Despite women constituting a significant majority in fields like teaching, men occupy more than half of the higher-paying leadership positions. This discrepancy underscores the fact that men are more likely to be considered for higher-paying positions despite a qualified pool of female talent for those roles.
For many women, especially women of color, opportunities for senior roles or advancement are more difficult to find. Stressors at work, like unreasonable performance expectations, outsized workloads and demands for cultural conformity often result in increased cortisol levels, which can lead to health issues. Black women often report having to work harder and face more undue scrutiny than their white male counterparts, further hindering their ability to move up and receive more pay.
Creating a culture of fairness for all employees can level the playing field for women working in similar roles as men. From flexible options for affordable childcare and processes informed by how employees work best to nuanced antidiscrimination policies, employers must understand there are many ways to make their workplaces fairer beyond only compensation. Because when conditions are fair for all and each employee has equitable access to opportunities, everyone benefits. However, pay equity is an excellent place to start.
As we continue to celebrate the achievements of women breaking through glass ceilings, we must also confront the reality that the gender pay gap has not significantly improved year over year. Equal Pay Day for all women—particularly those whose dates fall later in the year—highlights a systemic issue that is far from resolved. But through fair practices in the workplace, including appropriately valuing women-dominated industries, ensuring representation in leadership roles and addressing the nuanced barriers that women of color face, we can begin to address the factors necessary to close the gender pay gap.
If the gender pay gap were closed, it would boost the global economy by $7 trillion. While we can look to that future, we cannot live this reality until we understand the nuances of why the pay gap varies so drastically across groups of women and begin fixing the structural barriers that exist. We are only as close to true equity as the most disproportionately affected.
Forbes Nonprofit Council is an invitation-only organization for chief executives in successful nonprofit organizations. Do I qualify?
