The parade of Equal Pay Days kicked off recently. The dates mark wage gaps for all women, Black women, Latina women—each one more disheartening than the last. But then what? After we stand by the side of the road and watch, we go back to our lives, unsure why this is still going on, and what to do about it.
It’s not a simple problem to tackle, that’s for sure—but it’s also not impossible. Let’s start with the reality, and then look at the history and then some actions that would offer transformative change.
First, the wage gaps by gender, race and ethnicity happen at all levels, but the weight at the bottom is pulling us all down. The fact is that the low-wage workforce is wildly disproportionately made up of workers from historically marginalized populations: women and people of color.
When Oxfam recently analyzed data on who earns low wages in the U.S., we were prepared to find that the low-wage workforce was skewed by race and gender. What we didn’t expect are the staggering gaps.
Nearly a third of the workforce (32 percent) is earning less than $15 an hour: roughly 52 million workers struggling to get by on less than $30,000 a year, even now, in the face of surging inflation and skyrocketing gas prices.
Simply put, federal law has enshrined a double standard. It has created a low-wage workforce that law ignores and employers exploit.
However, when you drill down, the structural nature of low wages jumps out. While 25 percent of men earn less than $15, 40 percent of...
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