Members of Congress have introduced a resolution demanding equal pay for Black women amid persistent racial and gender wage gaps in the United States.
Marking Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, U.S. Reps. Alma Adams, D-N.C., Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., Teresa Leger Fernández, D-Fla., Lois Frankel, D-Fla., and U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., introduced the Black Women’s Equal Pay Day Resolution on Thursday.
“Today, we recognize the staggering wage inequity Black women face and recommit ourselves to addressing this injustice,” said Congresswoman Adams in a statement.
“For too long, Black women have been forced to work twice as hard to get half as far, facing steep barriers, discrimination, and lack of opportunity to succeed. We cannot afford to wait 200 years to be paid what we’re owed. I’m proud to introduce this resolution and continue our fight for wage equity in America.”
While the gender pay gap between men and women narrowed in 2024, Black women continue to face wider gaps. According to data from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), Black women earned just 64.4 cents for every dollar paid to white men in 2023. What’s more, the pay gap between Black women and white men exists in every state and is as low as 36.2 cents on the dollar in places like Idaho, regardless of their educational attainment. If existing racial and gender pay gaps persist, IWPR warns that it would take Black women until 2227 to achieve true pay equity.
“We cannot let this injustice continue. Pay transparency, childcare access, and real enforcement of anti-discrimination laws aren’t optional, they’re necessary,” said Congresswoman Watson Coleman.
The Black Women’s Equal Pay Day Resolution notes that Black women would lose more than $1 million in potential earnings as a result of the wage gap throughout a 40-year career.
“Lost wages mean Black women have less money to support themselves and their families, to save and invest for the future, and to spend on goods and services, causing businesses and the economy to suffer as a result,” the resolution states. It adds, “The pay disparity faced by Black women is part of a wider set of disparities faced by Black women in homeownership, unemployment, poverty, access to childcare, and the ability to accumulate wealth.”
The rallying call for Black women’s equal pay comes amid President Donald Trump’s mass layoffs and terminations as a result of anti-DEI policies and the so-called aim to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse within the federal government. Black women federal workers, particularly those serving as civil servants, have been disproportionately impacted.
“This month alone has shown us the real consequences of reckless cuts to the federal workforce — from failures in weather preparedness to persistently high unemployment rates among Black women,” said Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and national convenor of the Black Women’s Roundtable.
Campbell lamented about a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave the Trump administration the green light to enact its agenda of mass federal purges. She said those job cuts hurt all Americans, but especially Black women.
“Congress can and must act — by investing in quality job creation, ensuring livable wages, enacting equitable workplace policies, expanding access to affordable childcare, and guaranteeing universal paid leave,” said Campbell. “That’s how we close the wage gap — not just for Black women, but for all women.”
Senator Blunt Rochester said the “record high” unemployment for Black women comes amid an “uncertainty about our economy,” given concerns about Trump’s economic agenda, which includes ongoing tariff threats, mass tax cuts that primarily benefit wealthy Americans and corporations and historic cuts to Medicaid and other federal subsidies that working-class and poor Americans rely on to get by.
“America is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, yet Black women still have to work seven months longer to earn what white men do,” said Delaware’s first Black woman senator. She added, “The legislation we are introducing today acknowledges the ways Black women are being left behind in our economy and affirms our commitment to finally closing this persistent gap.”
