Report: Mass. trails nation, as COVID deepens pay gap for Black women
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Black Women’s Pay Day, marking the approximate day to which full-time Black women workers would have to work in order to catch up to what white, non-Hispanic men earned in 2020, is Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021 this year.
The date indicates Black women need to work 214 more days in order to make what white men earned in 365 days last year, and is based on data from the National Women’s Law Center, which indicates Black women earn 63 cents for every $1 earned by white, non-Hispanic men.
In Massachusetts, that gap is even wider, with Black women earning 57 cents per $1 earned by white, non-Hispanic men.
A report from Washington, D.C. think tank Economic Policy Institute, released Monday, found this annual milestone serves to highlight the disproportionate impact of COVID job losses on Black women. According to the institute, nearly one in five Black women lost their jobs between February 2020 and April 2020, compared to 13.2% of white men.
And, the institute said, by June 2021, Black women’s employment rate was 5.1 percentage points below February 2020 levels, while the employment rate for white men was down 3.7.
The pay gap for Black women is the result of several factors, according to the report, including occupational segregation limiting Black women’s access to higher-paying jobs, as well as a propensity for white men to be paid more for doing the same kind of work.
As an example, white male physicians and surgeons earn on average $63.41 per hour, compared to the average hourly wage of $46.59 for Black women in the same positions, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Similar gaps exist for registered nurses, elementary and middle school teachers, as well as child-care workers -- all jobs deemed essential during the pandemic.
Black Women’s Equal Pay day is marked annually, and has historically landed in early August. It stands in contrast to Women’s Equal Pay Day, which took place on March 24 of this year and highlights the pay gap for all women, regardless of race.
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