Everything You Need to Know About Equal Pay Day

Equal Pay Day should be Dec. 31. When we achieve gender parity in the workplace, men and women will be paid the same salary for doing the same job. But that’s not the case yet in 2018.

On average, women earn 80 cents for every dollar that a man earns, meaning that we must work until April 10 of this year in order to make the same amount of money that men earned by Dec. 31 of last year. Equal rights activists dubbed the day Equal Pay Day, as a reminder that men and women are still very much unequal in the workplace.

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While the average pay gap for men and women is 20 cents on the dollar, the difference varies greatly based on race. According to 2016 U.S. Census data, Asian-American women fare the best, earning $0.87 for every $1 that a white man takes home. White women earn $0.79 on the dollar, while African-American women take home just $0.63. Native American women earn $0.57, while Latinas fare the worst, taking home just $0.54 for every white male dollar.

When you compare moms to dads of any race, the figure is equally staggering. Moms take home just $0.70 for every dollar that dads earn.

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So how can you take action this Equal Pay Day to make sure that the gender pay gap closes in the future? Educate yourself, speak with your local legislatures, and bring up the conversation in your own office. After all, there’s no better day to ask for a raise.