It’s Equal Pay Day! This just in: pay still not equal

Women, like men only cheaper
April 12th is Equal Pay Day, since it symbolizes how far into the year a woman would have to work to catch up to a man’s earning from the previous year.

Women still earn 77 cents to every dollar men earn. And that’s when we pretend race isn’t a factor:

The wage gap is even more substantial when race and gender are considered together, with African-American women making only 62 cents,and Latinas only 53 cents, for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men.

The highest earners continue to be – *shock* *gasp* – white men. I know, I couldn’t believe it either. So there continues to be a pay gap between white men and men of color as well.

A broad range of organizing and agitating for pay equity has certainly narrowed the wage gap – women earned 59 cents for every dollar men earned when the Equal Pay Act became law in 1963. That’s definitely victory, but clearly we’ve got a long way yet to go.

Boston, MA

Jos Truitt is Executive Director of Development at Feministing. She joined the team in July 2009, became an Editor in August 2011, and Executive Director in September 2013. She writes about a range of topics including transgender issues, abortion access, and media representation. Jos first got involved with organizing when she led a walk out against the Iraq war at her high school, the Boston Arts Academy. She was introduced to the reproductive justice movement while at Hampshire College, where she organized the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program’s annual reproductive justice conference. She has worked on the National Abortion Federation’s hotline, was a Field Organizer at Choice USA, and has volunteered as a Pro-Choice Clinic Escort. Jos has written for publications including The Guardian, Bilerico, RH Reality Check, Metro Weekly, and the Columbia Journalism Review. She has spoken and trained at numerous national conferences and college campuses about trans issues, reproductive justice, blogging, feminism, and grassroots organizing. Jos completed her MFA in Printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute in Spring 2013. In her "spare time" she likes to bake and work on projects about mermaids.

Jos Truitt is an Executive Director of Feministing in charge of Development.

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