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 Carlina Rivera, New York City Council’s Women’s Caucus Co-Chair

In New York, women average 89 cents for every dollar earned by men. However, the wage gap for a black woman is even more stark at 66 cents. This is especially egregious considering all of the vital ways that black women contribute to our communities and economy. As a City Council we should be doing more to close this gap, which is a painful reminder that racism and sexism persist even in a city where diversity is celebrated.

To accomplish this, we must provide black women with more avenues to success. The wage gap is a result of several discriminatory factors that go beyond just race and gender bias. In order correct this difference, we must pass laws that increase access to high quality, affordable child care. We need to improve our public education programming, especially for careers that are in-demand, and ensure that black women are provided access to high-performing schools. I encourage employers to do more to support black women. It is not enough just to hire black women. We must also ensure that they are not overlooked when opportunities for higher-paying positions and career advancement arise. Discrimination policies should include generous, family-friendly leave policies and provisions that increase pay transparency.

Black women are an essential part of our city and deserve to be fairly compensated for their hard work. We must do more to achieve wage equality and not lose sight of how this issue affects women of different ethnic and racial backgrounds in varying degrees.