A recent report by the National Partnership for Women and Families reveals the extend of the gender wage gap in the US.

On average, women make only 77 cents for every dollar paid to men.

The disparity is much worse for women of color. Black women make only 70 cents for every dollar paid to men, and just 64 cents for every dollar paid to white men.

From the Huffington Post:

“Women of color are hard hit by a kind of perfect –- and perfectly devastating –- storm caused by discrimination, a struggling economy and the country’s failure to adopt family friendly workplace policies,” said Debra L. Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, in a release. “These new data show that the wage gap is costing women of color thousands of dollars in critical income each year that could be spent on food, rent, health care and on meeting other fundamental needs for their families,” she added, underlining the Partnership’s findings that closing the wage gap would afford a working African-American woman more than two years’ worth of food; almost 10 months’ worth of mortgage and utilities payments; more than 16 months of rent; more than three years’ worth of family health insurance premiums; or 4,549 additional gallons of gas, each year.

Advocates say its time for the passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act, and for steps to be taken to ensure that high paying, male-dominated jobs are available to women; and “to make sure jobs women do hold are valued in the same way.”

Read more at HuffingtonPost.com

 

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