ERA & partners host 2021 Latina Equal Pay Day & Essential Women Workers Summit

October 15. 2021

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For Immediate Release
Oct 15, 2021

Media Contact
Nazirah Ahmad
[email protected]

On October 21, 2021, Equal Rights Advocates, Justice for Migrant Women, and Parent Voices will host a Latina Equal Pay Day & Essential Women Workers Virtual Summit to build worker power with essential workers and share strategies to improve the nation’s labor and care structures. The online event will convene women and gender expansive essential workers in low-paid sectors, worker organizers, parents, advocacy groups, policy experts, and lawmakers.

Speakers include civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, White House Gender Policy Council Co-Chair Julissa Reynoso, Director of the U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Women’s Bureau Wendy Chun-Hoon, Congresswomen Barbara Lee and Veronica Escobar, actresses Melinna Bobadilla and Chelsea Rendon, Justice for Migrant Women President Mónica Ramírez, Equal Rights Advocates Executive Director Noreen Farrell, and many worker and parent activists who are leading the fight for change in our workplaces and communities. See a full list of speakers below

The event is free and supported by 65 workers’ rights, gender justice, and racial justice organizations nationwide. (Full list of supporting partner organizations below.) The Summit is made possible by support from funders including The New York Women’s Foundation, Jobs with Justice, Women’s Foundation California, and Twitter.

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Discussion Focus & Panels

10:00 a.m. PT (1:00 p.m. ET)
Seeding Change & Demanding More, an in-depth Latina Equal Pay Day conversation with multiple segments, hosted by Justice for Migrant Women. Click here to see speakers.

11:00 a.m. PT (2:00 p.m. ET)
Essential Women Workers’ Summit begins, opening with a Fireside Chat featuring civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, ERA Executive Director Noreen Farrell, and Wendy Chun-Hoon, Director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau.

• Click here to see all Summit and Panel speakers.

#LatinaEqualPay National Social Media Storm, co-anchored by Equal Pay Today Campaign (chaired by Equal Rights Advocates), Justice For Migrant Women, and Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA). Click here to participate and raise awareness with us.

11:30 a.m. PT (3:00 p.m. ET)
Panel session 1, featuring three panel options:

• Work with Fair Wages (Raise the Wage, Abolish the Sub-minimum Wage/Wage Theft, and Equal Pay for Equal Work);

• Work with Child care: How Centering BIPOC Parent and Provider Organizing is Necessary for Reimagining an Anti-Racist, Just and Transformative Child Care System;

• Work with Dignity (Workplaces Free of Harassment, Assault, Retaliation, and Silencing Agreements);

12:00 p.m. PT (3:00 p.m. ET)
Panel session 2, featuring two panel options:

• Work with Safety (Occupational Health and Safety Protections for All Workers); and
• Work with Family (How Worker Organizing and Community Advocacy is Moving the Needle in the Critical Policy Battle for Pregnancy Accommodations, Job-Protected Paid Leave, and Paid Sick Time).

 

Background

The Summit will take place on Latina Equal Pay Day, the day when the average U.S. Latina woman’s pay finally catches up to that of the average white, non-Hispanic man’s from the previous year, because the average Latina working full-time earns an average 57 cents per $1 paid to the average white man.* This amounts to nearly $1 million lost to the wage gap  over the course of an individual 40-year career. 

Latinas are one of the fastest growing, most powerful groups in the United States, central as workers and consumers, with the highest rates of degree attainment. Yet, Latinas suffer from the worst gender pay disparities in the nation and were among those hit hardest by job loss during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

One in three jobs held by women were deemed “essential” during COVID-19, and many of these essential jobs are performed by Latinas. The pandemic not only exposed the longstanding inequities faced by Latinas and other low paid workers; it also confirmed Latinas’ collective power to transform the modern American workplace for all of us. 

*All statistics are based on U.S. Census polling of working full-time, year-round workers.

Be a part of the conversation and join the effort to advance these important policies by registering for free here: bit.ly/WeAreEssentialSummit. Please share information about this event with essential workers and worker advocates in your life.

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Seeding Change & Demanding More Speakers:

Ana Castillo
Rosa Clemente
Karina Daza
Evelyn DeJesus
Daisy Dominguez
Congresswoman Veronica Escobar
Christy Haubegger
Jessica Herrera Flanigan
Analilia Mejia
Carmen Perez-Jordan
Mónica Ramírez
Chelsea Rendon
Bamby Salcedo, M.A.
Veronica Segovia Bedon
Olga Segura
Valeria Treves
Claudia Tristán
Shannon Williams

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Essential Women Workers Summit Speakers:

Brenda Star Adams
Paz Aguilar
Miren Algorri
Candace Branner
Wendy Chun-Hoon
Krista Colon
Socorro Diaz
Noreen Farrell
Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez
Adriana Gopar
Fatima Goss Graves
Nikia Harmon
Jaribu Hill
Dolores Huerta
Mary Ignatius
Saru Jayaraman
Josephine Kalipeni
Verónica Lagunas
Congresswoman Barbara Lee
Jillian Melton
Micaela Mota
First Partner of California Jennifer Siebel Newsom
Shelly Ortiz
Xochitl Oseguera
Silvia Perez Perez
Ai-jen Poo
Mónica Ramírez
Julissa Reynoso
Imelda Rosales
Andrea Ruedas
Jessica Ramey Stender
April Verrett
Shannon Williams

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Partner Organizations:

9to5
A Better Balance
American Association of University Women (AAUW)
Bet Tzedek Legal Services
Boston Women’s Workforce Council
Building Pathways, Inc.
California Domestic Workers Coalition
California Latinas for Reproductive Justice
California Work & Family Coalition
California Employment Lawyers Association
California Labor Federation
California Partnership to End Domestic Violence
Center for American Progress
Chica Project
Child Care Law Center
Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE)
Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap
Coalition of Immokalee Workers
COFI/POWER-PAC IL
Community Health Councils
Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund (CWEALF)
Equal Pay Today
Encantos
Esperanza United
Family Forward
Family Values at Work
Farmworker Justice
Fight for 15
First 5 California
The Garment Worker Center
Jobs With Justice
Labor Council for Latin American Advancement
LatinaMedia.Co
Legal Aid at Work
Legal Aid of Nebraska
Legal Voice
Mississippi Worker’s Center for Human Rights
Moms Rising & MamasConPoder
National Black Worker Center
National Center for Law and Economic Justice
National Committee on Pay Equity
National Council for Occupational Safety and Health
National Council of Jewish Women CA
National Domestic Workers Alliance
National Employment Law Project
National Partnership for Women and Families
National Taskforce on Tradeswomen’s Issues
National Women’s Law Center
One Fair Wage
Oregon Tradeswomen
Pacific Community Ventures
PowHer New York
Rhode Island Women in the Trades
SEIU USWW
She the People
Shriver Center on Poverty Law
Southern California Coalition for Occupational Safety & Health (SoCalCOSH)
Texas Women in the Trades
The Ohio Women’s Public Policy Network
Tradeswomen, Inc.
UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Initiative
Unemployed Workers United
Unite Here
United for Respect
United States of Women (USOW)
Warehouse Worker Resource Center
Western Center on Law and Poverty
White House Gender Policy Council
Women Employed
Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network
Worksafe
Y&H Soda Foundation
Ya Basta Coalition – SEIU

 

Foundation Partners & Event Sponsors:

Jobs with Justice
The New York Women’s Foundation
P&G Fund
Women’s Foundation California
AARP
Blue Shield of California Foundation
Marin Community Foundation
Twitter
Warner Media
Altshuler Berzon LLP
The Sturdevant Law Firm
Marguerite Casey Foundation