In most of the United States, the majority of women of color are still working a low-wage job — a legacy of decades of discriminatory policies that have stymied women’s economic growth.
A new state-by-state analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data released Tuesday by Oxfam, a global anti-poverty organization, shows how deep and widespread those disparities still are.
In nine states, 50 percent or more of all women workers are earning less than $15 an hour. But in 40 states, 50 percent or more of all women of color — Black women, Latinas, Native American women and Asian American and Pacific Islander women — are earning below a living wage. In 23 states, 60 percent or more of all women of color have hourly earnings under $15. The data reflects full-time workers and includes tipped workers and gig workers.
The $15 an hour measure has for the past several years been considered the starting point for a fair living wage — how much workers need to earn to afford a basic but decent lifestyle that allows them to save money and cover basic needs. It’s a different measure than the minimum wage, which has remained at $7.25 in the United States since 2009, making this the longest period the country has gone without raising the wage since it was created in the 1930s.
Oxfam’s analysis looked at how state-level decisions have driven women of color into poverty. In Mississippi, the only state that doesn’t have its own law requiring equal pay for all genders, 70 percent of all women of color...
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