IWPR Says Black Women Annually Earn $20,702 Less Than Their White Male Counterparts

The Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) released new data from a study on Tuesday, July 25, revealing more concerning information about the wage gap between Black women and white men in the United States. The IWPR declared that it would take until 2144 to resolve every state’s pay disparity. 

The IWPR’s study looked closely at each state’s pay disparities in the time check of full-time, year-round, and even part-time workers. The study showed that on a median average, Black women earn just 63.7 cents to every dollar earned by a cisgender white man nationally. The standard is exaggerated in certain states and better in others. The median in Michigan, for example, shows that Black women make 57% less than their white male coworkers. The concerning total causes them to lose $20,000 yearly in complete wages. Despite the shocking disparity, Michigan is only 22nd in the country for gender pay disparity without including the racial intersection. 

As reported by Michigan Advance, the IWPR’s chief strategy officer, Robyn Watson Ellerbe, highlighted how concerning the findings of the study were. She recognized that gender pay disparity is still highly prevalent but that women of color experience the steepest unfairness.

She said, “The gender wage gap is a national disgrace, and women of color feel the burden of that discrimination more than most. It is an injustice women — and women of color in particular — have had to endure year after year.” 

Watson Ellerbe explained that the pay disparity expanded past the finite money that Black women make but impacts their economic position, access to health care, and emotional well-being.

“We cannot ask women in this country to endure this injustice decade after decade,” Watson Ellerby declared. She urged state leaders to introduce policy-based solutions, mentioning moves such as: “ codifying better pay and benefits, organization through labor unions, further enforcement to prevent harassment and discrimination and widening access to fields of work where Black women are currently underrepresented.”

She finished, “We know what needs to be done; we just need policymakers and leaders in the business community with the courage to stand up and do it.”