By Mari Bandoma Callado, Dolan Law Firm Senior Associate Attorney and Director, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Black Women’s Equal Pay Day is August 3 because it takes an additional 214 days for Black women to catch up to what white, non-Hispanic men made in 12 months.
Black women are typically paid only 63 cents for every dollar paid to white men. The pay discrimination can follow someone from job to job and actually compounds over time. According to the National Women’s Law Center, the wage gap adds up to a typical loss of $24,110 a year and nearly $1 million over a 40-year career.
In California, several laws and regulations attempt to bridge the pay gap such as California Equal Pay Act (Labor Code section 1197.5) which prohibits an employer from paying its employees less than employees of the opposite sex, or of another race, or of another ethnicity for substantially-similar work.In addition, employers are prohibited from using prior salary to justify any sex-, race-, or ethnicity-based pay difference. Additionally, Labor Code Section 432.3, prohibits employers from asking job applicants about their salary history information, including compensation and benefits.
If you believe that you are being treated differently because of your race and/or gender, contact the Dolan Law Firm’s team of employment attorneys.
