Tennessee Tribune: Substantial Wage Gap for Black Women in Tennessee

March 2. 2023

ERA Executive Director Noreen Farrell is featured in a Tennessee Tribune article about gender and race wage gaps:

Noreen Farrell of Equal Rights Advocates (ERA) states that “Black women in Tennessee make on average just 58 cents to the dollar earned by white men.”

According to Farrell, Tennessee could follow the lead of states like California and Illinois that requires companies to report pay data on gender and race. She states that pay transparency is a significant problem facing working Black women and other women of color. With the inability to know what others in similar roles are being paid, it is impossible to challenge pay inequality and achieve pay equity.

It is crucial to know your rights. Farrell notes that “while your employer might prefer that you do not discuss numbers with your colleagues, federal law protects your right to do so.”

Equal Rights Advocates and Farrell state that “we currently have a patchwork of laws through which women are falling. Employers can be proactive to fill those gaps. And for those who won’t, we need federal law reform so that our rights do not depend on our zip codes.”

Read the article.