Palm Beach County NOW

Statement of NOW President Terry O’Neill on Black Women’s Equal Pay Day

Today, Black women catch up in wages to what white men earned in 2016. It’s a striking annual reminder to pay attention to the economic inequality African-American women face, and how it is–tragically, persistently–driven by both race and gender.

Black women earn just 63 cents for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men, according to the National Women’s Law Center. The disparity holds true regardless of a woman’s education level or profession.

Women across the board are paid less than men for equal work, but African-American women face an even larger wage gap than white women. The American Association for University Women reports that median annual earnings for white women in 2015 were $42,026–significantly more than the $34,426 than African-American women brought home.

This would be bad enough on its own, but Black women’s economic security worsens as this inequality plays out in the real world. Black women are overrepresented in low-wage jobs, and underrepresented in high-wage ones. And their lost earning potential over a lifetime is staggering. On average, Black women lose a whopping $840,000 over a 40-year career, all the while sacrificing Social Security and retirement benefits.

Today we must contemplate the critical intersection of racial and economic justice–and how women of color bear the dreadful consequences of this broken system. NOW’s grassroots activists will continue fighting for policies to close the wage gap and achieve economic security for women–and those must include policies to advance racial justice as well.

Contact
M.E. Ficarra, press@now.org, 951-547-1241

Statement of NOW President Terry O’Neill

Women around the country are breathing a sigh of relief today, as Senate Republican leadership’s latest attempt to throw millions off their health insurance, and block women from using Planned Parenthood for their reproductive care, was once again defeated.

Appallingly, Donald Trump responded from the White House with a threatening tweet: “[L]et Obamacare implode, then deal. Watch!”

Indeed, women voters are watching closely. We will hold accountable those politicians who sabotage the Affordable Care Act as well as those who continue trying to repeal it to hand tax cuts to billionaires.

The dark truth is that senators who voted for the “skinny” repeal bill last night were willing to gamble with women’s health and lives, lay them out like chips on a poker table without really knowing what’s coming next. No senator with an ounce of respect for women would take that bet.

And yet so many senators did, even though the stakes are so incredibly high. NOW’s grassroots activists will fight this bill tooth and nail to make sure it never becomes law. And we will do everything in our power to make sure that the senators who gambled on women’s health never serve in elective office again.

Contact
M.E. Ficarra, press@now.org, 951-547-1241

Original Publication: Associated Press, July 2, 2017

Associated Press writes: “A long-time feminist activist whose campaign resume noted that she had an illegal abortion in 1968 has been elected as the new president of the National Organization for Women.

Toni Van Pelt, 69, who has been active for decades in NOW’s Florida affiliates, was elected Saturday night at the organization’s national conference in Orlando, Florida. Elected as vice president was her running mate, Gilda Yazzie, a Navajo Indian from Durango, Colorado.”