Latina Equal Pay Day
Today on Latina Equal Pay Day, I’m reminded of my mother’s hard work and sacrifice over the years. At times working up to 3 jobs at a time. Something I naively thought every mom did. She was a part-time ESL teacher in Los Angeles and cleaned houses and hotel rooms on the side. She worked tirelessly to ensure my brother and I had it better than she did, managing to send us to parochial school. And yet, we struggled. We were accustomed to hearing about the dreams of others making it big in our city but for us, we had less lofty aspirations like getting to college and staying out of trouble. In those days, the excess of wealth was at its peak and economic disparity between gender and class staggering. Thirty years later, some things have not changed. Women continue to struggle to make ends meet in a world that views them as “half as good” as men. And for Latinas, research shows that we still don’t get paid fairly and don’t get hired for the job. It would seem we have not come a long way, bebé.
According to the 2017 U.S. Census Bureau, the wage gap for women continues to grow, and is especially bad for Latinas in the U.S. “ Latinas in the United States are typically paid just 54 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.” And in my beloved home state of California it’s even worse with Latinas getting paid a measly 43 cents for every dollar paid to Caucasian males, “In California and New Jersey, Latinas also face the largest overall cents-on-the-dollar wage gaps”.
Shocking? Not exactly. It’s something that we’ve known but never discussed for fear of losing our jobs or being labelled difficult by colleagues or managers. But when faced with facts, it’s heartbreaking. So how do we move forward? How do Latinas thrive in the workplace when the cards are seemingly stacked against us? I don’t have the answers and I’m not going to pretend I do. I will say that things are better for us all when we know our worth and stand up for what’s right.
I can’t tell you the number of times I have been asked to work for free, all in the name of experience, while my non-Latina counterparts made a livable wage. At some point you have to ask yourself the hard questions – is this project helping me or contributing to further marginalizing Latina workers? Is it helping humanity or is some “for profit” entity lining their pockets with my sweat? Something to think about…life is too short to not be valued. Mantra of the year!
On a day like today, let’s shine a light on the countless Latinas who work hard everyday to provide for their families and who deserve to be paid fairly. Equal pay for equal work - the women before us are counting on it.