Equal Pay Day symbolizes how far into the year women need to work to earn what men earned in the previous year.
Equal Pay Day was created by the National Committee on Pay Equity in 1996 to make the public aware of the gap between men's and women's wages.
Since Census statistics showing the latest wage figures aren’t available until late August or September, the committee selected a Tuesday in April as Equal Pay Day. Tuesday was chosen to show how far into the next work week women need to work to earn what men earned the previous week. The date also was selected to avoid religious holidays and other events.
Because women earn less, on average than men, they need to work longer for the same amount of pay. The wage gap is even greater for most women of color.
Equal paydays for women in 2019:
March 5 – Asian American women
April 19 – White woman
June 10 – Moms
Aug. 22 – African American women
Sept. 23 – Native American women
Nov. 20 – Latinas
A 2018 study from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research compared the wages of women and men and found women earned just 49 percent of what men earned. Economists Heidi Hartmann and Stephen Rose found that from 2001 to 2015, women faced a 51 percent wage gap. In addition, although the gender wage gap has narrowed since 1968, progress has been slow in the last 15 years.
Other findings in the study, “Still a Man’s Labor Market: The Slowly Narrowing Gender Wage Gap”:
- Women who take time out of the labor force pay a high price that’s increasing.
- Paid leave and affordable child care are critical to women joining the labor force and narrowing the gender wage gap.
- Strengthening enforcement of Title IX and equal employment opportunity policies also are crucial to narrowing the gender wage gap.
The study was released on Nov. 28, 2018. Earlier 15-year studies found that women earned just 19 percent and 38 percent of what men earned, showing some progress in narrowing the wage gap.
