Observing Black Women’s Equal Pay Day

Black Women's Equal Pay Day is the date on the calendar that symbolizes the additional time Black women in the United States must work into the current year to earn what white, non-Hispanic men earned in the previous year. In 2025, that date is today, July 10.

Black women earn, on average, about 66 cents for every dollar earned by non-Hispanic white men in this country in the same role. According to Equal Pay Today, over a 40-year career, this wage gap can accumulate to nearly $1 million in lost earnings.

Occupational segregation, lack of pay transparency, unpaid caregiving responsibilities, and discrimination in hiring and promotions perpetuate the wage gap.

This fact sheetfrom Institute for Women's Policy Research shows how Black women won't reach pay equity until the year 2227. Systemic racism and sexism perpetuate pay inequity for Black women, and intersectional policy solutions are needed such as anti-discrimination enforcement, the right to unionize (and protection for unionized workers), and student-debt cancellation.

The policy recommendations from IWPR are sensible, urgent, and long overdue.

"To effectively close the gender racial wage gap for Black women and attain pay equity for all," they write, "policymakers must approach the issue of Black women's equal pay through an intersectional policy lens. Gender and racial injustices are compounding factors that exacerbate discrimination against Black women. Due to the legacy of slavery, Black women's work is devalued and exploited. Lack of generational wealth, along with longstanding discrimination, have siloed many Black women into low- paying jobs with little to no benefits, support, or upward mobility. The quest for Black women's pay equity requires enforcement of anti-discrimination policies, educational support, salary transparency, comprehensive paid leave policies, reproductive health care access, and workplace protections at large."

NOW continues to fight for policy solutions such as the Paycheck Fairness Act, which will help ensure that workers are paid the same amount for the same work. And we need to increase the minimum wage, guarantee parental leave and childcare subsidies to ensure that Black women can take care of their children and not be prematurely forced back to work.

Today, on Black Women's Equal Pay Day, we rededicate ourselves to achieving pay equity and dismantling a racist system that holds us back, and puts us at risk.