Equitable Work and Wages
We believe that economic justice begins with fair compensation for all women, and we build evidence to support equal pay policies, livable wages, unions and labor rights, and better job quality for women and their families.
Here to Stay: Black, Latina, and Afro-Latina Women in Construction Trades Apprenticeships and Employment
The skilled construction trades provide opportunities to build careers that are both challenging and fulfilling, pay a family sustaining wage with benefits, and can be accessed through ‘learn as you earn’ apprenticeships. Apprenticeships are particularly common in the unionized sector of the construction industry, where contractors and unions jointly run and fund apprenticeship programs.
Asian and Pacific Islander Women Earn Less than White Men in All but One State
In 2019, the median earnings of Asian American and Pacific Islander women for a year of full-time work were just 84.6 percent of White non-Hispanic men’s, and just 73.3 percent of the median annual earnings of Asian American and Pacific Islander men.2 While Asian American and Pacific Islander women had the highest median annual earnings for full-time year-round women of the largest racial and ethnic groups in the United States, $55,0003 compared to $47,299 for all women workers,4 this hides large differences in the labor market experiences for different groups of women.
The Weekly Gender Wage Gap by Race and Ethnicity: 2020
As lowest paid women lost most jobs, the gender wage gap for full-time workers shrank for all women and men, and by race & ethnicity. The gender wage gap in weekly earnings for full-time workers in the United States narrowed between 2019 and 2020, from 19.5 percent in 2019 (a gender earnings ratio of 81.5%) to 18.7 percent in 2020 (a gender earnings ratio of 82.3%)
On the Books, Off the Record: Examining the Effectiveness of Pay Secrecy Laws in the U.S.
The Equal Pay Act, passed over a half century ago, prohibits sex-based wage discrimination (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 2020). But the gender pay gap remains substantial: full-time, year-round women workers earn 18 percent less than their male counterparts (Hegewisch and Mariano 2020). A lack of knowledge about who makes what within organizations contributes to this continuing disparity.
