Why Equal Pay Day Matters

It was New Year's Eve, 2020. My mother was at the hospital working in the cardiovascular intensive care unit. Dad had planned for all of us to watch “Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest” and ring in the New Year. He rummaged through our disordered, cluttered garage and rejoiced when he found the box of leftover party hats, noise makers, and hand clappers. This year's celebration would be subdued as we were in a global pandemic.

Eleven o'clock came and went, and there was no sign of mom. My brother and I were eager to pop open the bottle of sparkling apple cider. Dad was getting anxious by the minute. The COVID vaccine was not released yet, and he was understandably concerned for his wife's safety and well-being. After a few anxious calls to colleagues and nurses at the hospital, we discovered that mom was delayed because she chose to stay back to feed an 84-year-old patient admitted to the ICU. He had no family, so my mother would not leave him there alone.

My physician mom is the kind of person who routinely sits by her patient's bedside long after her shift is over. A professional basketball player, Lisa Leslie, once said, "My mother was my role model before I even knew what that word was." I couldn't agree more.

I recently learned my mother consistently gets paid less than her male colleagues for doing the same work, which is appalling, especially in 2023. I did some research and learned that the pay gap between female and male physicians nationwide is a staggering 24.6%. This gap persists even though research has shown that patients treated by female physicians tend to have lower mortality rates and lower hospital readmission rates compared with those treated by male physicians within the same health care systems. This is likely at least partly because female physicians lean toward spending more time with each patient, caring enormously for their healing and recovery.

Gender pay inequity is hardly limited to the health care industry. In November 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Labor released a report that evaluated gender wage gaps across dozens of professions, and found that, among full-time, year-round workers, women earn 18 to 20% less than men. The report's conclusion states: "The narrowing of the gender wage gap has slowed in recent decades."

The Center for American Progress released a fact sheet in February 2023, highlighting another concerning trend: More women participate in the labor force, but their pay gap worsens with age. Their report states, "Women's earnings plateau midcareer, while men's continue to climb.”

Black women are paid 67 cents for every dollar paid to a white male for doing the same job, and so Black Women's Equal Pay Day is July 27th. The pay gaps Latinas and Native American women experience are even larger.

Policy initiatives like salary history bans can help reduce the gender pay gap as they prohibit employers from asking an applicant for the paystub from their previous employer. Currently, 21 states have outlawed questions about pay history. Initiatives like this are a start, but we have a long way to go. According to the Pew Research Center, the gender pay gap in the United States has not changed in two decades. In 2002, women earned 80 cents for every dollar earned by a man, and today, women earn 82 cents on the dollar for doing the same job as their male counterparts.

This is precisely why Equal Pay Day matters. Paying women what they are genuinely owed is a matter of fairness. Equal Pay Day is a symbolic day that draws attention to the extra months a woman has to work to catch up to what the average man was paid for doing the same job. The date changes annually; this year, it is being observed today, March 14th.

When this day eventually advances to December 31st of the previous year, we will know that the barriers for women to advance in their careers have been mostly removed, disparities have been reduced, and parity in pay has finally been achieved. As President Biden stated in his proclamation last year, "we should not be satisfied until Equal Pay Day is no longer necessary at all."

Now that will be a New Year's Eve celebration worth waiting for. My Dad, brother, mother, and I will be ready and waiting with our party hats, noise makers, and hand clappers.