You may be familiar with the statistic that in the US women are still paid only 77 cents for every dollar their male counterpart makes. But what you may not know is that that statistic applies to white women. According to the National Women’s Law Center:
For women of color, the gap is even wider: African-American women are paid only 64 cents, and Hispanic women only 54 cents, for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.
On Equal Pay Day, we talked to National Women Law Center’s Fatima Goss Graves about fair wages, negotiation, and why workplaces need to learn to work for working families:
On today’s show #TeamBlackness also discussed how school lunches really haven’t changed that much, whether Bill Maher is racist, and why blasting church music may not be the best choice for a limo full of black people riding through wine country.
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stoned stats
Not surprised, but holy crapballs.
Cacti
Not at all surprised. Dovetails nicely with the fact that in 2012, Obama won 55% of the women’s vote, but only 42% of the white women’s vote.
Gorgon Zola
“But what you may not know is that that statistic applies to white women.”
No, I that stat applies to all women. (Therefore the gap between what white women make vs women of color is even greater than you imply.)
eyelessgame
Does the 77% statistic apply to white women, or to *all* women? If the latter, then – given that WOC are doing worse than that – white women are doing better than that statistic implies, and the problem is almost more one of race than of gender.
Cacti
@eyelessgame:
Census and BLS statistics from 2010 show white women make 80.5 cents to every dollar for white men.
Black men, make 74.5 cents.
So, you’re correct that there is both a racial and a gender pay gap. Women of color get the proverbial double whammy.
Another Holocene Human
Let me blow the suspense for you, Elon: they won’t
That’s why we need the union.
I can’t tell you how many people on my job would have been fired if not for FMLA. Something unions fought for and continue to fight to keep in place. A law that is frequently broken in non-union workplaces where there’s no union to keep management honest.
Another Holocene Human
@Cacti: It’s like a privilege map for the USA. Something to keep in mind when someone whines that the real oppression is class-based. (I think Scalzi said it best with his video game analogy. Being a white male is like playing a game on “easy” mode.)
Another Holocene Human
American workplaces are becoming more segregated:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/therootdc/post/many-american-workplaces-are-becoming-more-segregated/2012/10/25/6c86e0a6-1e15-11e2-b647-bb1668e64058_blog.html
Elon, yes, DC is called Chocolate City! Kind of shocking that the wage gap is worse there. Lord. Very fucking hateful people there, btw. I got in a shouting match at work with another white person when I was a lot younger over “those people”. Bigots never think they’re bigots.
Another Holocene Human
You would be shocked how much middle aged white people used to, probably still do, resent the jobs that were “given to” “those people” at Metro (WMATA). Well, just look at the racial slurs tossed at Jackie Jeter, the president of ATU Local 689, DC’s train/bus operator’s union.
I had surly customer service agent experiences in DC and Boston but in DC I had other white people go on big racial tears when I complained about it. In Boston the CSRs for MBTA were lower class whites–they could be English, Irish, or Italian, not to mention other ethnicities–and even when there was a mini scandal about a CSR hanging up on a customer I never saw racial crap in the newspaper comments even though there were a bunch of neadertals calling for mass firings. There’s a difference between class animosity alone and racial animosity. Class animosity: fire them for the impertinence! Racial animosity: those people are so ungrateful, they don’t deserve those jobs, they’re not ready for self-government, yadda yadda against the entire community, man woman and child.
Seriously, though, I couldn’t be Jackie Jeter. The stuff lobbed at her is downright VILE and she takes it with such grace. Plus people blame her for everything wrong with WMATA, never mind the horrible board and all the bad decisions coming from the top. Sure, sure, it’s the drivers who made the tunnels catch fire. It’s the drivers who make the signal block system fail and people die. Right.
Calouste
@Another Holocene Human:
I think there was one of those lists on cracked.com that explored the “life as a white male is a video game on easy” analogy.
Another Holocene Human
@Calouste:
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/15/straight-white-male-the-lowest-difficulty-setting-there-is/
http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-gamer-comments-that-give-straight-white-guys-bad-name_p2/
Scalzi posted a year prior. Cracked is pretty awesome, though.
ETA: oh wait, I guess the Cracked guy started it, sorta, but it was a passing comment. Scalzi did a whole thing. It got a lot of attention. There was more thing. And so on. But credit where it is due: http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-8-stupidest-defenses-against-accusations-sexism/
Another Holocene Human
Sorry, Calouste, was trying to append credit where due, got moderated for too many links. Basta!
rikyrah
Not shocked in the least by the stats. But thanks for the reminder.
rikyrah
@Cacti:
Barack Obama’s women gap is because of non-white women. White women are quite comfortable voting for misogynists who would take away abortion, birth control and access to quality female-centered health care via Planned Parenthood. And take away food from children via cuts in food stamps, and are ok with not providing healthcare to the working poor via Medicaid.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Let’s not paint with too broad a brush. This white woman doesn’t resembler the white women you described. I worked my butt of for Barack Obama in the early primaries and caucuses – traveling to 4 different states to do it. I care very much about all the stuff you listed above; none of that is okay.
And there are plenty of other women who are a lot more like me than the picture you painted just now.
mclaren
Anyone want to talk about the rape culture thriving here at Balloon Juice?
From the front-pager soonergrunt who happens to be an accused rapist, to commenters like Omnes Omnibus who laugh and laugh and laugh and make jokes about the fact that 1 out of 3 women in the military are raped, Balloon Juice distinguishes itself as a supposedly liberal forum where everything rapey is really welcomed with open arms.
No one wants to talk about that?
Gee…I wonder why.
WaterGirl
@mclaren:
I’ll talk about that. As soon as you provide links to the comments where Omnes is laughing and laughing and laughing and making jokes about the fact that 1 out of 3 women in the military are raped.
I’ll leave be sure to leave this thread open in a tab for a few days, that way I can check back for those links.
Jebediah, RBG
@WaterGirl:
I think we’ll be waiting quite a while.