The Washington Post, July 29, 2020: Wage gap robs Black women in D.C. of almost $2 million over lifetime, analysis finds
The lost cents add up over every paycheck and every year of a woman’s life. Over the course of a 40-year career, a Black woman in the District is estimated to lose $1.98 million because of the wage gap, according to an analysis by the National Women’s Law Center. That means a Black woman would need to work until age 98 to make what a White man made by age 60.
Many Black women in the workforce had yet to fully recover from the Great Recession before the novel coronavirus pandemic. Now, as the economic fallout and job cuts fall hardest on women of color, the lost earnings from years of pay inequities have left Black women unprepared to weather another financial crisis, experts say.
“These women are losing millions of dollars over their lifetimes because they’re being shortchanged so much compared to their White peers,” said Jasmine Tucker, the law center’s director of research. “It’s money that people need right this second.”
