The Gender Pay Gap and Low-Wage Working Women

In the United States, full-time, year-round working women earn $0.80 on the dollar compared to all full-time, year-round working men; however, along with the gender pay gap and gender discrimination, there exists the racial pay gap and racial discrimination, which intersect to make employment and financial conditions more challenging for women of color.

For every $1.00 white, non-Hispanic men earn, AAPI women earn $0.85, but Burmese women and other subgroups make as low as 52 cents.

White women earn $0.79.

Black women earn $0.63.

Native American and Indigenous women earn $0.60.

And Latinas earn $0.55.

Due to the long history of the unequal division of household labor and generational racial wealth inequality, two-thirds of low-wage workers are women, especially women of color, which means they have fewer resources and work protections to live a dignified life, including having the ability to manage balancing work and family. Compared to men, women carry the greatest responsibility in doing unpaid non-market labor, like care work. Lacking access to affordable housing, healthcare, and childcare incentivizes low-wage workers to accept low-paying jobs with reduced working conditions. Still, the minimal support given to caretakers combined with depressed wages creates a constant struggle in their ability to care and to earn a livable wage to sustain their families.

Mothers in low-income families are more likely to be breadwinners. According to research by MIT, a single mother with two children earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour needs to work 138 hours every week, which is approximately 24 hours a day for six days a week. This standard is physically and mentally impossible and unsustainable, but low-wage working women carry the burden of being overworked for unlivable wages every day.

In conversations about the gender pay gap, we must remember the experiences of low-wage working women who deserve the same dignity, respect, and protection as women in higher-paid positions.

Written by: Madeline Ley