Black Women’s Equal Pay Day Requires Equity in Policies
Black Women’s Equal Pay Day 2025 takes place amid massive cuts and attacks on programs and policies aimed at closing the economic gap experienced by Black women and their families. Recent reports of Black women’s high unemployment rates only further compound the challenges faced by Black women and their families.
Each year, Black Women’s Equal Pay Day marks the day in which Black women finally catch up to the earnings of white men from the year before. The day in which Black Women’s Equal Pay Day is recognized varies each year, but the impact on Black women and their families remains the same. This year, Black women on average earned 66 cents as compared to non-Hispanic white men. In the South, that disparity is even more drastic.
Like other commemorative days, Black Women’s Equal Pay Day provides an opportunity to pause and reflect on the challenges and opportunities for addressing systemic economic disparities. As outlined by the National Black Worker Center, a combination of occupational segregation and historic discrimination rooted in slavery accounts for the extreme inequity experienced by Black women working in the South.
Chandra Childers, a senior policy and economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, recently outlined the impact of Trump’s cuts and public sector disinvestment on Black women.
“The public sector includes workers in federal, state, and local government that we all rely on to educate children across the region, care for sick and elderly family members, ensure food and water are safe to consume, provide public transportation and sanitation services, and ensure access to a wide range of other public services,” wrote Childers. “The decline in public-sector job quality across the South disproportionately harms Black workers, especially Black women, their families, and communities.”
It’s estimated that over 40 years, Black women lose out on $1 million in earnings. Even if Black women were suddenly paid the same as their white male counterparts, it would take an estimated 200 years before Black women working full-time achieved true economic parity.
Achieving equal pay for Black women demands policies and the political will to ensure enforcement over the long haul. Policy agendas like the Black Women Best Framework and the recently introduced Black Reproductive Justice Policy Agenda by In Our Own Voice provide a blueprint for improving economic and social conditions for Black women.
“Despite historic unemployment rates for Black workers being double the rate of White workers, Black women’s persistent labor force participation is not merely admirable — it is a reflection of generational resilience in the face of enduring labor market injustice,” wrote Miriam Van Dyke, research manager at Kindred Futures. “We must uplift Black women and allow them to thrive as they have continued to raise and sacrifice for the Black community and larger society.”
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