Day 63: Equal Pay Day
Whilst spring breakers are the latest population to drive concerns over spiking Covid-19 cases in the U.S., the White House is staying the course of delivering vaccines, responding to domestic emergencies and celebrating symbolic days.
Equal Pay Day, recognized nationally today, is meant as a “reminder of the work that still remains to advance equity and ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to reach their full potential,” President Biden proclaimed via statement.
Pre-pandemic, in 2019, women were still paid only 82 cents for every dollar paid to men and the numbers are all the more disparate and devastating among women of color (for Black women it’s 63 percent, Native American women it’s 60 percent, and Hispanic women it’s 55 percent of white men’s wages — meaning we won’t reach “Equal Pay Day” for Hispanic women until October this year).
Since the spread of Covid, the numbers have worsened as certain sectors of the jobs market that were more often filled by women were slashed and as demands at-home for childcare grew.
“We need to make sure that when we’re expanding access and when we’re looking at how to rebuild this country back better post the pandemic, we still have so many women leaving the workforce in December, women who’ve been forced into care positions and moved out of the workforce just by the virtue of this pandemic,” Representative Nikema Williams (D-GA) said.
“We have to make sure we’re looking at all these things when we look at our infrastructure, when we look at how we get people into our workforce and building our economy — making sure that women who’ve been disproportionately impacted by this pandemic are elevated.”
“When you raise the economic status of women, you raise the economic status of families, of communities and all of society benefits,” Vice President Kamala Harris said.
The Biden-Harris Administration is a staunch supporter of America’s promise of equality, rolling back bans on travel to Muslim nations and transgenders in military in addition to nominating women and minorities to top ranking positions.