Black women working full-time, year-round earned 65 cents for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men in 2024. Not 67 cents. Not 70 cents. 65. And the brief improvement during the pandemic? It was not real progress. It happened because so many Black women in lower-paying jobs lost work entirely, leaving only higher-paid workers in the data. This is not about individual negotiation. This is a structural problem that requires structural solutions. What advocates say needs to change: → Pay transparency laws so workers can identify wage disparities → Bans on employers asking about salary history → A federal minimum wage that has not moved from $7.25 since 2009 → Affordable child care and paid family leave → Stronger union protections, not weaker ones "Organizations really thrive off of pay secrecy because it allows them to continue underpaying and undervaluing, particularly Black women," said NWLC senior analyst Sarah Javaid. Black women have always been the most hardworking, m...