(Un)equal Pay Day for Native Women

 

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Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: There’s a pay gap between women and men, and that gap is even wider for women of color. But here are a few facts you might not have heard before: African American Women are paid 68 cents for every dollar white men are paid and Latino women are paid 64 cents. For Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, that number is 62 cents. American Indian and Alaska Native women are paid just 59 cents.

September 8 marked Native American women’s equal pay day, the day that the wages of American Indian and Alaska Native women catch up to the money white men earned last year. (It took about nine months, if you’re counting.) We used this occasion to honor all Native Americans, including Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, who would have reached “equal pay” back in July, right before black women did.