By: Phelicia Ball

Today is Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, July 31, which marks the number of days into 2017 that a Black woman must work in order to earn the same amount of pay that a white man made in 2016. Think about that for a second. That’s seven months into the year; just 5 months shy of a year. Therefore, Black women must work a total of 19 months to make the same as their white man counterparts do in a year. July 31st represents those extra seven months of extra labor that we Black women must work. Reading those words aloud is exhausting within itself.

As soon as women enter the labor force, they are affected by the wage gap and according to The National Women’s Law Center, there is a wage gap in 98 percent of professions. It’s important to understand that the wage gap isn’t just about gender, but that it’s also about race. Black women are known to be working more hours, yet the wage gap has grown exponentially worse over the years. These are your mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, wives and girlfriends, and close friends who are being robbed of equal pay due to gender and racial bias.  

According to The National Women’s Law Center, women who work full time, are paid only about 80 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts, which is $10,470 less per year in median earnings. Black women are payed less than white women, only earning 63 cents for every dollar paid to their white counterparts.

It’s time for people in power to refute the existing wage gap, have more empathy, and fight for those who don’t necessarily look like them, but are just as hardworking and are as valuable to our society.

Thank you to the few Black women celebrities and politicians who brought attention to this issue today: