The Boston Globe – ‘The attack on workers begins and ends with Black women’

The attack on workers begins and ends with Black women

Black women are being hit hardest by layoffs and persistent pay inequities. The consequences ripple through workplaces, families, and communities nationwide.

Boston Globe
By Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman and Rep, Ayanna Presley

Black women have always been the backbone of the American economy. While much of that labor has been coerced, uncompensated, and rendered invisible, our role as economic drivers has been undeniable.

 

In 2025, thousands of Black women left or lost their jobs, with college educated Black women and Black women in the federal workforce being disproportionately impacted. Black women’s unemployment rate is now at a striking 5.7 percent, well above the national average of 4.2 percent. That’s why this Black Women’s Equal Pay Day on July 21, in particular, highlights how Black women’s absence from the economy hurts us all.

 

Since Donald Trump’s return to office, hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been displaced by federal funding cuts and the Department of Government Efficiency’s mass firings. The administration’s federal workforce layoffs and funding cuts gutted agencies and left many workers without a government job and a reliable income. Before these cuts, it was reported that Black people made up 18 percent of employees in the federal workforce compared to 12 percent in the overall labor market. Simultaneously, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research reports that it will take 200 years for Black women to achieve equal pay in this country. What we are witnessing here is a parallel crisis — one that has already sent ripple effects through communities near and far.