By Gabriela Quintana
While having paid sick days and paid family & medical
leave are crucial to the economic security of women and their families, having
these two benefits is not enough—especially if you are Latina like me. Wages matter and, in the case of
Latinas, we continue have a much wider gender wage gap than white
women or even African American women.
According to the Economic Opportunity Institute, “Washington
women who worked full-time in 2014 were paid $13,000 less than men, diminishing
family budgets and undercutting community business prosperity. Women of color face especially large wage
disparities. Median pay for White women in Washington is 74% of White
men’s, for Black women 68%, and Latinas 48%.
“The wage gap persists at all education levels and across
occupations. More women than men between the ages of 25 and 45 hold four-year
college degrees in Washington, but women need those degrees to make the same
amount of income as men with less formal schooling.”
It’s disheartening. According to other statistics, in
Washington State it would take a Latina about three years to catch up to what a
white man makes. This means that in 2019, I’ll be making what a white man makes
in today’s wages. Yay.
Today is Latina Equal Pay Day, which marks the day that
Latina workers finally catch up to what white, non-Hispanic male workers made last
year. Yes, you read that right. Nationally, it takes Latinas 22 months to match a white male’s earnings from the
prior year, according to recent United States Census data.
Economic security for women means having no wage gap, access
to paid sick days, and paid family and medical leave. Show your support by voting yes on I-1433, which will
lower the wage gap disparities across the board and ensure that all workers
in Washington get paid sick days.
If we can get this done in 2016, then maybe in 2017 we can
get paid family and medical leave passed. Just imagine!
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