By Austa Somvichian-Clausen
The return of springtime in the United States means a few things: taxes are due, flowers are springing, the observation of Easter approaches and Equal Pay Day is here. Only, with the threat of the coronavirus hanging heavy over the nation’s head, things look a little bit different this year.
Today’s annual observation of Equal Pay Day serves as a marker for the number of extra months into the new year that women must work in order to earn what men brought in the previous year, and considering the record-shattering 3.28 million Americans who applied for unemployment benefits just last week, it highlights worrying statistics that are more important now than ever to be tackled.
“The pay gap is less money women have in their pockets for basic necessities and less in savings to ride out a crisis like this,” Nicole Mason, president and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, tells Fortune.
