Last Tuesday, April 10^th was Equal Pay Day – the date each year that marks when the average woman will have earned as much as her male colleagues earned the previous year. Last year it was April 4^th.  For women of color, Equal Pay Day comes even later. Black women reach the milestone on August 7^th and Latina Equal Pay Day is November 1st.

Let’s take a closer look at this situation.

In a Time article, “10 Powerful Women on How #MeToo Has Changed the Fight for Equal Pay”, Jennifer Calfas notes how long it will take to close this gap, given our present rate of progress. Estimates from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research show the pay gap won’t be closed for women until at least 2059, not until 2124 for black women, and as far out as 2233 for Hispanic women. So not in our lifetimes! Think about that when you are talking to your daughters and granddaughters about what they want to be when they grow up.

According to an ABCNews report, tech is one of the better industries. The report says, “In the tech industry — which has been under scrutiny for gender equity issues — women were paid 99.5 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earned, the smallest pay gap by industry found in the study. However, when the control for the same title is removed, women earned 84.7 cents compared to men in the tech industry, moving it to the middle of the industries examined.”

According to the 2018 HIMSS U.S. Compensation Survey based on the feedback of 885 health IT professionals, gender pay disparity exists similar to the overall numbers already noted. Continue reading →