March 25: Equal Pay Day in the USA.

By Sofía Pérez Gasque

Equal Pay Day, or Equal Pay Day, is celebrated in the United States on March 25, a date that highlights the persistent income gap between men and women. This day symbolizes that women have had to work all of 2024 and until this date in 2025 to equal the income that men earned in 2024 alone.

Despite advances in gender equity, women who work full-time, year-round earn just 84 cents for every dollar a man earns. If part-time women workers are included, the gap widens to 78 cents on the dollar. The situation is even more alarming for women of color: African-American women earn only 64 cents, while Latinas earn just 51 cents for every dollar earned by a non-Hispanic white male.

This pay inequality is not due to a lack of ambition or effort on the part of women. A decade of research on female participation in the workplace has shown that women in the corporate world are asking for promotions and negotiating salary increases at the same rate as men. However, they continue to face structural barriers that limit their professional and economic growth.

Pay inequality doesn't just affect one paycheck; it impacts women's entire lives.

This gap represents a cumulative loss of nearly half a million dollars over the course of their careers, hindering their ability to support their families, purchase a home and save for retirement.

Moreover, the problem is not limited to wages alone. Gender inequality in the workplace also manifests itself in other fundamental aspects:

1. Lower representation in senior management: Although women have earned more college degrees than men for more than four decades, they represent only 29% of senior management (C-suite) positions. At this rate, it will take 22 years for white women to reach parity, and for women of color, the waiting time will be twice as long.
   
   

Early career disadvantages: In the first key step into leadership, women face unequal promotion. In 2024, for every 100 men promoted to manager, only 81 women achieved the same promotion.

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