Coronavirus is making Equal Pay Day for women of color even worse

NAPAWF

Today (March 31) is Equal Pay Day for American women. The day symbolizes how long it would take American women to “catch up” to the average earnings of white men working in the same positions — and when broken out into specific ethnicities, AAPI women fare far worse than the model minority stereotype would suggest.

The good news is that before February and March, the pay gap was getting smaller. But the bad news: The Coronavirus happened.

“On Equal Pay Day 2020, we face yet another threat to economic justice—this time in the form of a pandemic, said Ms. Foundation for Women President and CEO Teresa C. Younger in a statement.

“There is a certain irony in celebrating Equal Pay Day during this historic time in the United States,” said Younger. “Today, as women around the country are suffering from lost wages, cut hours, and facing extreme economic hardships due to the spread of COVID-19, the pre-existing gaps in pay inequality are even more reprehensible."

Compared to other women of color, Asian American and Pacific Islander women are on the higher end of the wage gap earning on average 92 cents for every dollar earned by men. The Equaly Pay Day for AAPI women was observed Feb. 11.

RELATED: AAPI Equal Pay Day highlights disparities between AAPI communities.

The model minority myth is used to cover up reality for most Asian American and Pacific Islanders. The success of a few doesn't make up for the vast majority of AAPI workers.


“Race and ethnicity, age, whether you’re a mother -- all these things affect how a woman experiences the wage gap. Because Asian American and Pacific Islander people are often lumped together and considered a monolith that is the ‘model minority,’ the reality of our struggles is made intentionally invisible," said National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum Executive Director Sung Yeon Choimorrow.

If you break it down into specific Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, the wage gap grows.

For certain communities, the wage gap is far greater. Vietnamese women earn $0.64, Hmong women earn $0.57, and Burmese women earn only $0.50, making them some of the lowest paid people in the nation. Even within high earning fields, Asian women are paid less than their male counterparts. "Model-minority" rhetoric is racist, classist, divisive, and just plain wrong. 

Here a list of what women by other racial groups make compared to white men, and their Equal Pay Day for 2020. 

• Asian American and Pacific Islander women: February 11, $0.92
• Black women: August 13, $0.62
• Native American women: October 1, $0.57
• Latina women: November 2, $0.54

Those professions heavily populated by women are suffering under the policies in place to combat the coronavirus.

Today (March 31), because sales have dramatically dropped because of the stay-at-home policies mandated by local jurisdictions, Macy's announced it will begin furloughing most of its 130,000 employees across the nation. Most of those will be women working as retail clerks in their stores.

Thousands of restaurants employing waitresses have been forced to shut down, day care providers have been laid off as the children have stopped coming because their mothers are at working at home or have lost their jobs, the hotel industry is laying off workers, because the hotels are empty.

Amid the pandemic, "Many hourly wage, gig and contract workers lack paid sick leave, family leave, and medical leave at a time when our national health and economy are under threat," said Younger. "Women comprise two-thirds of this workforce, and a disproportionate amount of these women are women of color, who now may face reduced hours, alongside the challenges of homeschooling children and tending to family members across generations.”