How does one overcome the Black Woman situation of earning 63% of what a White man makes when negotiating salary and benefits?
I would prefer to handle this upfront than have to file a lawsuit later.
the counterfactual is so hard to uncover. You could choose to work places with pay transparency, although they are very rare currently. you could also have candid conversations with your recruiter and ask them to indirectly confirm equity.
Wages of Black women are driven down by a number of current factors including gender and racial discrimination, workplace harassment, job segregation, etc. According to the U.S. Census, on average, Black women were paid 63% of what non-Hispanic white men were paid in 2019. That means it takes the typical Black woman 19 months to be paid what the average white man takes home in 12 months. That’s even worse than the national earnings ratio for all women, 83%, as reported in AAUW’s The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap. The Black Wealth gap will continue I think because it is by a systemic design just like redlining. I had a mentor tell me when you are researching and trying to figure out your salary always ask a few white and black men for their salary range because that way you will know that you are getting paid the right salary instead of low ball salary that they give women. Regarding your current job and low salary I would research and find out all the salaries for your company and market and present the information in a meeting to senior administration. I would present the information in a pitch deck presentation you can make on canva listing all your experience, and education and certificate and list all your benchmarks and all the salaries of your counterparts in that role and their experience and education and also what the market salary is for your presentation. Statistics don't lie.
# Number of employees are getting paid $
# Number of employees with this experience are getting paid $
# Number of employees with this education are getting paid$
# Number of counterparts breakdown are getting paid $
The market salary for this role is $
Whatever you do when you are presenting do not get emotional at all just state the facts. These are the facts. Be well!
Caveat-I’m not an employment attorney. Here’s my take-are you both in the exact same role? Are you doing the exact same thing? Are your resumes and job history equivalent? Have you both been there the same amount of time? Are you both performing at the same level (skill wise and get the same performance reviews)? If all those questions are yes, then I think you can ask about the pay disparity.
It would be helpful to know what field you work in and the educational /certification requirements.
I’m a woman but not a minority. I never stopped working even when my children were born. I always took the job I felt I could do-I might not have all the qualifications but I went for it. I have found that I’ve been paid very fairly. I do know that if someone takes time off to raise a family or care for a relative, they typically cannot renter the job market at the current market rate. Unfortunately, most of the time the people taking time off to help are women, so there can be a pay disparity.
Good luck!