The Million Dollar Cost of Being a Working Latina

October 3rd is Latina Equal Pay Day.

A mentor once told me: “Because you are a woman and because you’re a brown woman like me, if you want to get to the highest levels of this profession, you’re going to have to be even more accomplished than a white man.”

I remember feeling angry and frustrated by her statement. But I also remember knowing in my gut that this was the truth. This became part of my checklist of things that I had to do to become successful.

Because of my gender, because of my decision to have children, because I was born in El Salvador and identify proudly with my Latinx heritage, I will always be about 50% behind.

I have been privileged to achieve my educational goals and gain leadership roles in my career. But as I became a mother and as the years have passed, I’ve realized something: No number of degrees or years of work experience will ever put me on equal footing with men, in particular white men. Because of my gender, because of my decision to have children, because I was born in El Salvador and identify proudly with my Latinx heritage, I will always be about 50% behind.*

This all adds up. By the end of my hopefully long career, I will lose out on about $1 million dollars in earnings because of factors out of my control. It’s a million dollars less that I can pass on to my children. A million dollars in generational wealth lost. No checklist, degree, or amount of hard work can ever help me close this gap.

No number of degrees or years of work experience will ever put me on equal footing with men, in particular white men.

I’ll let myself feel the anger and bitterness today. But then I have an obligation to get to work. I’ll be putting my education and experience to work to fight for pay equity and gender justice for working Latinas and our sisters. I’m lucky to be doing this work with my colleagues at Equal Rights Advocates. They’ve been fighting this fight for 50 years, and they have the track record to prove it.

Will you join me? A trabajar.

This Latina Equal Pay Day, raise awareness with us and our Equal Pay Today partners across the country during our national #LatinaEqualPay social media storm today, Oct. 3, at 11:00 a.m. PT / 2:00 p.m. ET.

* While every Latinx worker is different, and education and maternal status are important factors, overall, this data represents all Latinx workers.