This is a guest post that is part of a series featuring women leaders for Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, which falls on August 7, 2018.

Council Member Adrienne Adams

Though the wage gap is around 80 cents to the dollar on average, it’s even more pronounced when you break it down by race making the divide much deeper for women of color. The wage gap is a harsh reality for black women, regardless of education and work experience — and it only gets worse as black women’s careers progress. Unfair pay has prevailed for far too long and I support Black Women’s Equal Pay Day. We need to continue to push this issue to the front of conversations, so that employers across the United States can truly understand that all employees must be compensated equally. As a country we need to do better.