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Community leaders speak out on pay equity for black women

Tanishia Johnson with ROC the Future Alliance speaks at the Black/African American Women’s Equal Pay Day Rally
Noelle E. C. Evans / WXXI
Tanishia Johnson with ROC the Future Alliance speaks at the Black/African American Women’s Equal Pay Day Rally

Community leaders spoke Thursday at the Black and African American Equal Pay Day Rally. The event highlighted the historical context around pay inequity, and shed light on ways to close the gap.

Tanishia Johnson with the child education advocacy group, Roc the Future, says that simple steps can help change what she says is a human rights matter, as well as a systemic racism, and gender discrimination issue.

"Maybe it’s advocating for a coworker and sharing with her that when you go for your promotion," Johnson said. "Negotiate your salary, if you’re going from a specialist to a manager to a director, that comes with an increase and let me see what those job duties entail because many women don’t know to do that."

On average, the New York state Department of Labor says that black women are paid 64 cents to the dollar in New York State, and 61 cents to the dollar nationally when compared with white non-Hispanic men in the workforce.

Candice Lucas spoke on behalf of Saint Joseph’s Neighborhood Center at the rally, and said that the historical context should not be overlooked.

"As we recognize the 400 years since the first enslaved Africans were sold to Virginia colonists, we must acknowledge that the labor of people of African descent continues to be devalued," Lucas said.

Jerome Underwood with Action for a Better Community, a community resource organization, said that the wage gap is directly tied to child poverty.

“Children can only be poor because their parents are poor," Underwood said. "Children don’t wake up and decide ‘well, I’m going to be poor today.’ In this city, we know that the vast amount of households that are poor are headed by who? Women. And in this city again most of those women are black women. If we don’t pay them like we pay white men it perpetuates poverty.”

Rochester ranks third in the nation for childhood poverty, behind Flint Michigan, and Gary, Indiana. U.S. Census Data released in 2018 shows that more than half of Rochester kids, around 52 percent, are growing up poor.

Jerome Underwood with Action for a Better Community Inc.
Credit Noelle E. C. Evans / WXXI
Jerome Underwood with Action for a Better Community Inc.

Johnson with Roc the Future Alliance says that unless the wage gap closes for black women, poverty will persist in the city.

"If we can’t get it right in terms of pay equity for black women, then we are going to see a continuous issue in this city in particular with poverty," she says.

She adds that pay equity is an issue of racism and gender discrimination and stresses that it is by-and-large a matter of human rights.

"Black women’s lived experiences make clear that we have to combat structural barriers to equal pay," she says. "As long as the wage gap persists, this country will never reach it’s true potential."

Noelle E. C. Evans is WXXI's Murrow Award-winning Education reporter/producer.
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