Wage Inequity for Black Women in The Workplace
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Introduction
A new focus is being directed toward the racial wage gap and why black women, specifically, continue to earn considerably much less than their white counterparts in the United States. This comes as organizations in the United States seek to resolve problems regarding racism in the workplace. For the sake of this article, a problem that frequently arises in our current era is the wage disparity that exists for women of color in any field they choose to work in, despite the fact that this gap should not exist in the first place. The wage gap that exists for black women is a significant problem that has been examined in the past, but the situation has not improved to the point where the issue can be considered fixed.
As a result of this issue, black women are paid less than women of other races. A racial wage gap harms black women in the United States, which is a significant issue in our global society. Despite the fact that this may appear to be a solution to the problem, the figures indicate that the wage gap remains the same regardless of whether an individual has full-time or part-time employment or a graduate degree (Appleby, 2018). The wage gap has changed so little for black women during the 1980s that the shift should not even be called a shift over such a significant period of time. This problem hurts numerous children and families across the United States.
For this challenging topic, it is stated that black women earn less per hour than white women on average. It is also observed that salary discrepancies exist due to discrimination in the labor market, namely that other races may be more “effective,” which hurts women of color in the labor market (Cocchiara, Bell, and Berry 2006). This subject is further affected by the false implication that women’s arithmetic skills are inferior, affecting the employment prospects of black women seeking employment or attempting to make a living.
In order for black women to receive the same income as their white counterparts, they need to work nonstop for a period of seven months. The 31st of July has been designated by the United States of America as Black Women’s Equal Pay Day. This day symbolizes the point in time when a black woman would have to place in the exact portion of effort as a white woman colleague in order to earn the same amount of money. This suggests that people are treated differently based not only on their race but also on their gender (Bleiweis, Frye, and Khattar, 2021). In contrast, black female employees earn, on average, 67 cents for every dollar earned by a white woman employee. This is true regardless of whether the person has more years of experience, is located in a more desirable region, or has completed a higher level of education.
One needs to question the rationale behind the presence of this circumstance. The disparity in pay between black women and white women affects the lives of black women in a variety of different ways. Prior to now, black women in the United States of America have suffered low and slow income growth (Manduca 2018). This is due to the fact that black women are listed in the top 5 percentile of earnings in the country. This exemplifies the inequity that exists on the bases of racial identity and social identification. There is a correlation between gender and the poor pay that these black women receive.
In all actuality, black women put in a more significant number of hours per week than white women. Since 1979, the percentage of hours worked by black women has increased to the 18.4 percentile, yet they still have a relative income disparity compared to their white colleagues, which include both women and men. Although men put in more hours than women, recent research carried out by the United Nations suggests that this disparity may be due to an expansion in the number of hours labored by black women.
This increase in the number of hours worked on an annual basis is particularly alarming for the employees who make up the bottom forty percent of the wage distribution, which is typically controlled by women. Women in the workforce are making a significant contribution to this trend. More than one-half of the black female workers in the workforce are mothers. The structure of the black women’s household places a significant emphasis on the women’s responsibilities to the household in terms of financial matters.
Despite these statistics, approximately two-thirds of black women who are working or employed have at least some post-secondary education. 24.9% of those included in this group have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher. Regrettably, at every level of academic education, black women receive a salary that is lower than that of their white counterparts (Bleiweis et al. 2021). This constitutes unfair treatment in the workplace, given that hiring decisions should be based only on candidates’ qualifications and the number of years they have spent working in their respective fields.
Factors contributing to wage inequity among black women
There are multiple possible factors for the racial wage disparity between black women and their white counterparts. The effect of the movement of industrial and blue-collar occupations from metropolitan regions and Wealthy countries has been the subject of a compelling argument(Green and Jackson-Jefferson, 2021).The deindustrialization of economies resulted in the disappearance of numerous high-paying technical positions as well as the consistent labor supply from which black women greatly benefited, particularly in towns with a significant manufacturing presence.
The new invention of the digital economy has been centered on the expansion of high-skill professionals and areas of innovation in which the presence of racial minorities, and black women,in particular, is minimal. Technological changes are diminishing the requirement for specialized or physical labor while increasing the number of positions requiring a high level of education and competence, resulting in salary discrepancies for black women.
Another to take into account is that the racial wage gap has widened along with rising economic equality overall. The sluggish increase of living standards for households with low and middle income as a result of income disparity has become a key issue for current advanced economies (Blau and Kahn, 2020). This is due to slow hourly pay growth and the delayed rebuilding of the middle class following the 2008 financial crisis. The liberalization of labor regulations has resulted in policy decisions and organizational actions that have undermined the labor market, while executive and top executive incomes have increased significantly.
Despite the rising social understanding of the problem and the increasing prevalence of equal pay audits, black women are still subjected to endure pay disparities. The principal causes of the empirical wage disparity are labor force participation and educational achievement differences betweenwhite and black women (Johnson and Taylor 2019). In fact, this results in reduced labor force participation and the essential expertise for advancement to higher-paying professions in any sector or labor force.
Discriminatory factors, which are unquestionably a concern in this scenario, can arise at both the job application and employment stages. Black women may have trouble acquiring well-paying employment, and when they do, they face lower pay and the possibility of workplace harassment (Rosenfeld and Kleykamp 2012). In the case of the British labor force, however, social inequality is the main reason for wage disparities, with the disparity within the same job functions being significantly less.
Solutions to wage inequity among black women
Several variables, particularly discrimination, negative stereotyping, and disempowerment, contribute to this inequality. However, black women, their managers, and their coworkers can take steps to reduce or eradicate these inequities (Malveaux, 2013). This outmoded notion of recruiting for “cultural fit” is one factor that prevents black women from receiving the income they deserve and the positions for which they are qualified. Black women must discard this notion entirely since they should hire for our blind spots.
It is the job of hiring managers to ensure that their business represents the diversity of the market they service or the client base and that unconscious bias frequently prevents black women from genuinely accessing leadership capability.Black women need to speak up. Individuals’ fear of saying the incorrect thing causes them to lose the possibility of doing the proper thing.
Fundamentally, privilege is the inability to witness injustice that does not impact you. Using your advantage to empower others entails stepping outside of your privilege to call attention to an unjust situation affecting someone else, which is black women’s job (Banks, 2020). Everyone possesses privilege and has the opportunity to use it to empower others.
Using employee resource groups or business resource groups, businesses can undertake internal pay audits, evaluate their assessment methods for incentives and advancements, and develop mentoring initiatives for black women. Additionally, organizations should cease questioning applicants about their present income and rather disclose the pay scale for the roles for which they are hiring.
The implementation of salary bans is a beneficial step in the right direction; however, businesses should also take into account the implementation of data-driven technology to streamline the process of remuneration decision-making and completely eradicate implicit biases from the beginning of the recruiting and hiring procedure.
It is also recommended that career-mentoring programs for minority workers be improved. This is due to the fact that financial achievements are significantly impacted by social networks. These initiatives can consist of the development of improved possibilities for minority graduates to interact with or be trained or supported by decision-makers from other parties (Cortés et al. 2021). These initiatives can be directed toward new graduates who are just starting out in their professions. If they do so, it can assist them in building up social contacts, which they can utilize to their advantage while looking for higher-paying professions.
Conclusion
The problems of unequal pay based on race and gender are pervasive in today’s society and in the field of incentive organization. The method in which gender and racial inequality are finally represented in the labor market and wage distributions is very similar. This is true despite the fact that their origins and settings are very different. It is suggested that wage compression procedures be involved in, as well as the implementation of policies at both the government and corporate level in order to tackle disparities, enable the entry and engagement of black women and racial minorities into new industries, and engage in wage compression.
In conclusion, the problem of the gap that exists between black women and whites should be settled as soon as possible because it is a component that is demotivating in the workplace. The government can implement changes that can be made in reference to employment through Congress, which in turn helps to foster genuine competition in the workplace. In the event that policies are altered to include people of all races and genders in employment positions, then this problem will no longer exist, which will be to the advantage of the firm’s human capital and the corporation in general.
References
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Banks, N. 2020. Black women in the United States and unpaid collective work: Theorizing the community as a site of production. The Review of Black Political Economy, 47(4), 343-362.
Bleiweis, R., Frye, J. and Khattar, R., 2021. Women of color and the wage gap. Center for American Progress.
Blau, F. D., & Kahn, L. M. 2020. The gender pay gap: Have women gone as far as they can? In Inequality in the United States: A Reader (pp. 345-362). Routledge.
Cocchiara, F., Bell, M. P., & Berry, D. P. 2006. Latinas and black women: Key factors for a growing proportion of the US workforce. Equal Opportunities International, 25(4), 272-284.
Cortés, P., Pan, J., Pilossoph, L., & Zafar, B. (2021). Gender differences in job search and the earnings gap: Evidence from business majors (No. w28820). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Green, D., & Jackson-Jefferson, M. 2021. The leak in the academic pipeline: On Black women sociologists. Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, 4(2), 104-111.
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Manduca, R. (2018). Income inequality and the persistence of racial economic disparities. Sociological Science, 5, 182-205.
Rosenfeld, J., & Kleykamp, M. 2012. Organized labor and racial wage inequality in the United States. American Journal of Sociology, 117(5), 1460-1502.
