American women overall are paid only 80 cents to every dollar a man takes home, and the wage gap gets worse when factoring in race—and even wider when you add motherhood as a factor in addition to gender and race.

Here in Pennsylvania, Black moms only make 55 percent of a white (non-Hispanic) wage-earning father’s paycheck. This wage gap means there’s a whopping $29,075 difference between how much Black Pennsylvanian moms and white non-Hispanic Pennsylvanian dads are paid annually.

Equal pay advocates commemorated June 4 as an equal pay day for mothers overall, meaning the day mothers, on average, had to work into 2020 to catch up to the average father’s earnings in 2019.

If we factor both race and gender into parenthood while looking specifically at Pennsylvania workers, equal pay day for Black moms working in Pennsylvania isn’t until October 22. That means Black mothers in Pennsylvania have to work almost an entire extra year to catch up to the earnings of their white dad counterparts.

The Exploitation of Black Women Workers

This country has a long history of exploiting Black women and mothers’ work. Black mothers have the highest labor force participation of any group, but are more likely to be paid poverty-level wages, more likely to allege pregnancy discrimination and are paid less than white women and men.

In the age of COVID-19, the exploitation of Black mothers in the labor force is even worse.

Black mothers comprise nearly one-in-five frontline workers. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Black moms are:

• 4 percent of grocery workers;
• 2 percent of public transportation workers;
• 21 percent of trucking/postal service/warehouse workers;
• 5 percent of building cleaning workers;
• 7 percent of healthcare workers; and
• 18 percent of childcare and social services workers.

Often forced to forgo protective equipment at work, Black mothers who are essential workers are risking exposing their families to COVID-19 and are also likely to assume the burden of increased caregiving for their children and elders, as well as homeschooling responsibilities.

And because COVID-19 relief packages excluded nearly all essential workers from paid leave protections, those most at risk for exposure (and already operating at a pay deficit) often aren’t able to take time away for caretaking responsibilities. We know that workers without paid leave feel forced to work even when potentially ill, increasing the risk of exposure to others.

Women of color and mothers are also overrepresented in industries losing business during the pandemic, like restaurants, hotels, and retail. These are also the industries that are least likely to offer their employees paid sick leave.

Inadequate Pay, Inadequate Caregiving Support

The Pew Research Center reports that as of 2017, 26 percent of Black adults needed family or medical leave in the last two years but were unable to take it (compared to only 13 percent of white adults).

Annual household income correlates with the likelihood of having access to paid leave. The higher the pay, the more likely they are to have access to paid time off. Black moms suffer pay inequities on three fronts: race, gender, and parental status. Hence, the probability of a Black mother falling into the under $30,000 annual salary bracket (the lowest pay bracket examined for the purposes of this survey) is exorbitantly high.

Workers paid less than $30,000 a year who had to take leave report the following:

• 22 percent received full pay while on leave;
• 14 percent received some of their pay while on leave; and
• 62 percent received no pay while on leave.

Meanwhile, 58 percent of workers with annual incomes of over $75,000 received full pay on leave.

Lack of access to paid leave forces some workers to take on debt, pay their bills late, and seek public assistance. Nearly half of low-income respondents without paid leave had to pay bills late and go on public assistance after the birth or adoption of a child.

An AARP report found that for Black families with caretaking costs, 34 percent of their annual income is spent on those expenses, compared with 14 percent for white families. The wage gap, so exacerbated by race and motherhood, means that Black mothers are more likely to live without a safety net than almost any of their peer groups.

The Pennsylvania Legislature is heading into summer having failed to pass legislation to support equal pay, address pregnancy discrimination, or mandate family leave. Stay tuned as we ramp up advocacy for these issues heading into the fall.

Blog post written by Kate Doyle, WLP Legal Intern

The Women’s Law Project is a public interest law center in Pennsylvania devoted to advancing and defending the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people in Pennsylvania and beyond.

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