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Pay Day Inequity: U.S. Wages Don't Balance Out for Latinas
By Ana Campoy

In the U.S. hierarchy of wages, Latinas stand on the lowest rung. For every dollar earned by a full-time, year-round working man in 2003, white non-Hispanic women made about 81 cents and black women made 66 cents, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census. Latinas came in last, earning only 55 cents to a man's dollar.

Women may be more educated and better represented in the workforce than in the past, but they continue to get smaller paychecks. Subtract some of the education gains and add racial discrimination, and the wage gap widens considerably for minorities, especially for Latinas.

And when it comes to wages, a woman's loss reflects on society as a whole, not only affecting her but all those who depend on her. Closing the gap between men's and women's pay would be enough to lift many families above the poverty line, experts say.

“It's not just a matter of being treated unfairly,” says Evelyn Murphy, economist, former lieutenant governor of Massachusetts and president of The WAGE Project, a nonprofit that promotes equal pay for women. “What happens over time is that all the little nicks accrue and dampen a woman's capacity to take care of herself and her family."

Researchers who have studied the wage gap say women earn less than men for many reasons: Women gravitate toward lower paying jobs, interrupt their careers to take care of their family and don't negotiate raises as well as men.  Ultimately, however, many agree that at least a chunk of the wage divide is because of outright gender discrimination.

“The fact that jobs that are dominated by women tend to pay less is itself evidence of continuing sex stereotyping,” says Jocelyn Samuels, vice president for education and employment at the National Women's Law Center, a nonprofit that aims to improve women's opportunities through the law. “But even between men and women doing the same job, you see significant pay disparity.”

Wage discrimination goes beyond receiving lesser pay for equal work.  When employers refuse to hire or promote qualified women, when they treat women inequitably because of pregnancy and when they permit sexual harassment in the workplace, women lose money just the same, says Murphy.

Minority women, who tend to have the lowest-paying jobs, are even more vulnerable to abuse and discrimination, she adds.

Education and work statistics illustrate just how hard it has been for Latinas. Of all the students getting a professional degree in 2003, only 4% were Latinas, research from the National Center for Education Statistics shows.  In management and professional occupations, Latinas fared worse, accounting for only 3.3%, according to Catalyst, a nonprofit institute that researches and advises working women.

The education gap, in part, is reflective of the youthful average age of the Latino population, which still has many in the teens, says Rakesh Kochhar, associate director for research for the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center. Recent immigrants, who are getting most of the new jobs among Latinos, often are paid lowest and have the additional burden of not speaking English. Those factors also lessen the chance to earn a better salary, says Kochhar.

As a result, the higher up the ladder you go, the fewer Latinas you're likely to find.  Only six sat in the corporate boards of Fortune 100 companies in 2004, according to a Catalyst study.  Over 70% or 851 board members were white men.

The prevalence of men in positions of power has been seen as one of the barriers to better jobs and better pay for women. “There's an unconscious bias,” says Samuels. “Managers will promote people who remind them of themselves, who look like them and have potential in the same way.”

Employers also will pay women less because they don't perceive the women as breadwinners, or they assume women need more time and flexibility to take care of their families than men, she adds.

Making these kinds of distinctions is illegal. Yet the thousands of claims filed at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for sex and pregnancy discrimination underscore that employers don't always follow the law.

The Paycheck Fairness Act, reintroduced this year by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., would give the law teeth to punish violators by making it easier for women to file class action claims and sue for punitive damages. However, the act, which has been introduced every year since 1997, has never made it to the floor for a vote.

Regardless, Murphy says that only women's activism can close the wage gap. “When we all say it's unfair to us and to our families that will trigger mass activity.”

Until wages even out, women should start saving as early as they possibly can, especially for retirement, says Nancy Granovsky, a family economics specialist for the Texas Cooperative Extension at Texas A&M University .

“The earlier you begin,” she says, “the less you have to save.” 

Ana Campoy has written about Latinos in the U.S. for publications ranging from the Wenatchee World, a small newspaper in the heart of Washington state, to the Wall Street Journal.    

Su Conexión

To find out what you can do about the Paycheck Fairness Act, go to the

National Women's Law Center at: http://www.capwiz.com/nwlc/home

To learn what to do in case of discrimination, go to: http://wageproject.org