Giving Compass' Take:

• Diana Shi at Fast Company research showing how this global pandemic is only hindering and slowing down progress for equal pay for all women, especially those who are black and Hispanic. 

• How can we achieve equal pay? What are you doing to address structures that inhibit pay equity for Black women?

• Learn more about the continuous neglect of Black women in the United States.

Each year Black Women’s Equal Pay Day marks the number of days a Black woman must work into the year to earn what her white male counterpart earned in the previous year.

In 2020, that dubious distinction falls today, August 13—226 days into the calendar year. (In contrast, white women caught up this year by April 9.) This is because for every dollar a white man earns, Black women earn $0.62.

And now this pay gap, which has not narrowed for Black women in the past 25 years, is at risk of increasing due to the coronavirus.

According to the nonprofit Equal Pay Today, Black women are more likely to work essential, low-wage jobs, making them both more susceptible to contracting the virus and more likely to suffer job instability. As of July’s job report, almost one in seven Black women were unemployed.

Women of all races are being impacted disproportionately by the economic consequences of COVID-19. That’s unusual, because in “regular” recessions men’s employment tends to be more affected, according to a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Read the full article about equal pay for black women by Diana Shi at Fast Company.