In terms of wage disparity, most of the time people talk generally about women versus men. But unfortunately, there’s an even larger disparity when it comes to whose paycheck is looking smaller than someone else’s.
Nonprofit group Atlanta Women for Equality is raising awareness online about the disparity between the wages of black women and white men. According to its research, black women make 64 percent of the average pay of white men. In order to to earn the same amount a white man earned in all of 2014, a black woman would have to work an additional 208 days into 2015.
The group has declared Tuesday #BlackWomenEqualPay Day, and the hashtag has been a trending topic on Twitter all day. As part of the group’s effort, it has encouraged people to clock out of work at 2:07 p.m. Tuesday—64 percent into a 9-to-5 workday—and post selfies as a call to action to bring this issue to the attention of the world.
According to Atlanta Women for Equality, over a career spanning 40 years, black women lose $775,000 because of the wage gap and would need to work an additional 23 years to catch up to white men.
On Twitter, participants have posted selfies and other statistics relevant to the disparity in wages for black women. The organization provided a printable time card for social media users to use along with their selfies.
https://twitter.com/lorraine_acker/status/626045982782808064https://twitter.com/SisterSong_WOC/status/626038960578428929https://twitter.com/LaborSec/status/626103826383290368https://twitter.com/YvetteClarke/status/626099285776580608https://twitter.com/msfoundation/status/626091262039445505
Sadly, somewhere on the Internet, a white man is typing similar words about the hashtag and is making more money. #BlackWomenEqualPay is real.