Columbus Dispatch: Black Women’s Equal Pay Day – An annual occasion to call for wage reform

September 21. 2022

The Columbus Dispatch interviewed Policy Director & Deputy Legal Director Jessica Ramey Stender for an article published today for Black Women’s Equal Pay Day.

The article explores how and why our Equal Pay Today campaign coalition decided on a new methodology for wage data calculations that provides a more accurate representation of the reality for women of color workers throughout the country. The new method includes part-time, gig, seasonal, and contract workers–as opposed to previous years, which included only full-time year-round workers–to account for the occupational segregation women of color experience, pushing many into low-paying parttime jobs that must often be pieced together to make a living.

“Using that data better conveys the broader picture of how dire the pay situation is, especially for women of color,” Ramey Stender continued. “Because of that, the gaps were larger, and that made the Equal Pay Days fall later in the year.”

But women’s median earnings only appeared to increase because lower-income women were not included the count, according to Ramey Stender. Many of them were forced out of work amid the pandemic.

Read the article here.