WEAR RED FOR EQUAL PAY DAY, TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2019

The East Los Angeles-Montebello Business and Professional Women  recognized  April 2, 2019 as Equal Pay Day. Equal Pay Day is the symbolic day when women’s earnings catch up to men’s earning from the previous year. Equal Pay Day calls attention to the persistent and sizable gap between men’s and women’s wages. According to latest U.S. Census Bureau on average, full-time working women earned 80 cents (in California it is 84 cents) to every dollar earned by men. The gap is even worse for women of color (for African American women it is 61 cents for Latinas it is 53 cents and for Asian women it is 85 cents). The WAGE Project estimates that the wage gap costs the average American full-time woman worker between $700,000 and $2 million over the course of her lifetime. At the rate we are going, the wage gap will not close for another 50 years.

According to the National Women’s Legal Center a 20-year old woman just starting full time year round work today stands to lose $406,760 over a 40-year career compared to her male counterpart. When her male counterpart retires at age 60 after 40 years of work, she would have to work nearly 10 additional years – until almost age 70, which is past Social Security’s full retirement age – to close this lifetime wage gap. The situation is even worse when looking at how some women of color fare compared to white, non-Hispanic men. Over a 40-year career, Black women typically lose $946,120, Native women typically lose $977,720, and Latinas typically lose more than $1.1 million compared to white, non-Hispanic men. In order to close these lifetime wage gaps, Black women would have to work nearly 26 years longer than the white, non-Hispanic man retiring at age 60, Native women would have to work nearly 30 years longer, and Latinas would have to work more than 35 years longer. In other words, Black, Native, and Latina women must work well into their 80s or 90s to catch up to what a white, non-Hispanic man made by age 60, delaying their retirement even beyond their life expectancy. Depending on the state in which she lives, some women of color must work past age 100 in order to catch up to white, non-Hispanic men

The wage gap contributes to the higher statewide poverty rate among women, which stands at 18 percent, compared to approximately 15 percent for men, and the poverty rate is even higher for women of color. April 2nd symbolizes the day when women’s wages catch up to men’s wages from the previous year. Every year in April, Business and Professional Women’s Clubs along with hundreds of other women’s, civil rights, labor, and community organizations recognize Equal Pay Day. Red is worn on this day as a symbol of how far women and minorities are “in the red” with their pay.

“Women and their families can no longer afford to be shortchanged. The Sierra Mar District Business and Professional Women is committed to working to eliminate the wage gap,” said Linda Wilson, President. “We encourage businesses to pay women

fairly, push for laws that will enforce current equal pay legislation and educate women on how to negotiate for higher salaries.”