City of Rochester
News Release
(Tuesday, April 10, 2018) – April 10 is National Equal Pay Day, which symbolizes how far into the year the average woman must work to earn the same amount that her male counterpart earned as of Dec. 31. Put another way, far too many women must work more than 15 months to earn as much as many men in the same jobs earn in 12 months. Worse, Black Women’s Equal Pay Day is Aug. 7, and Equal Pay Day for Latina women—who make 54 cents for every dollar that their white male counterparts earn — is Nov. 1. It is simply unconscionable that such a high degree of unfairness exists in the American workplace today.
These gross disparities are even more poignant on this, the 200th year of the birth of Frederick Douglass, who once said: “Woman…like the colored man, will never be taken by her brother and lifted to a position. What she desires, she must fight for.”
On this day, let us re-dedicate ourselves to fighting for solutions to the economic inequality that continues to plague our city and our country, especially as some in Washington seek to end protections for women and minorities in the workplace.
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*Note: Mayor Warren’s Office of Innovation and Strategic Initiatives completed a study last year on wage disparities in Rochester. For information on the findings, visit: www.cityofrochester.gov/article.aspx?id=8589972605.
News Media: For more information, contact Press Officer Jessica Alaimo at 428-7135.