July 27 is Black Women’s Equal Pay Day—a time dedicated to amplifying how the wage gap impacts Black women. For every dollar that a white man makes, a Black woman make 67 cents. While pushing for pay parity, additional strategies can be utilized to address the inequities that Black women face. Four Black women from different walks of life shared what support both inside and outside the workplace can look like.
Fostering Flexibility
“As a parent, support for me looks like flexibility and understanding,” shared Fieven Amare, who is a stay-at-home mom and former senior consultant at a Big 4 consulting firm. “While many of the people I worked closely with weren’t parents themselves, it made a world of difference when I was encouraged to set boundaries and [was] even celebrated by colleagues when I ultimately made the decision to leave the organization to focus on my little ones fulltime. If I were ever to return to the workforce, I would look to be a part of a team that understands that as a mom, I’m fitting working around my family, and not the other way around.”
Continuing Education
Understanding the ways that systemic inequities impact Black women is a vital part of support, shares DEI and decolonial consultant Joquina Reed. “On Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, we collectively bring awareness to the existing social and institutional practices that maintain long-standing wage discrimination against Black women and femmes. We cannot challenge contemporary social ills without looking at the historic patterns that created this problem.” A pivotal part of supporting Black women requires consistent and ongoing education about issues that directly impact Black women. “One cannot simply address issues relating to pay equity and Black women without acknowledging the ways anti-Blackness and, therefore, misogynoir shapes every facet of our daily lives.”
Culture of Transparency
Creating an environment where employees feel comfortable discussing salary, wages, and pay can be instrumental to identifying pay disparities. “Many of the stories I hear start with Black women finding out from either their colleagues or an external recruiter that they are being lowballed,” shared Niani Tolbert, founder and CEO of HireBlack, which is a platform dedicated to getting 10,000 Black women hired, training and promoted. “To start being transparent about how much you are earning, readers can submit your salary anonymously to our Radically Transparent Salary Database. Organizations can start being transparent about how they calculate an offer like Buffer does. I also work with organizations on role matrices to match specific responsibilities with pay bands, which I think are one of the best ways to identify if someone is being underpaid for the work that they do.”
Online Support
Jalonni Weaver is a senior talent acquisition analyst who has built an engaged LinkedIn following. Weaver shared that support can be something as simple as amplifying content online. “You can comment on [a Black woman’s] post and add to the discussion so that their post can gain more reach. If you see a Black woman asking for help and you have the capacity to do so, then do it. I’m a firm believer in lifting as I climb. I don’t believe in gatekeeping and I do what I can to share information with my community, which is made up [of] mostly Black women. I want to see as many Black women win but that starts with us helping each other out.”
Support can and should come in many forms. Ensuring Black women are paid fairly and equitably is the bare minimum: more must be done to also address the misogynoir that leads to persistent inequities. If you aren’t in a position to influence employee pay or conduct a pay audit, encourage a culture of flexibility and transparency. It’s also vital to look for any and every opportunity to amplify Black women and to use your power, privilege and influence to make introductions, uplift voices, share and reallocate resources.
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