Equal Pay Day was initiated by the National Committee on Pay Equity in 1996 as a public awareness event to illustrate the enduring gap between men's and women's wages. Since then, the day is marked on a different date each year, depending on how much longer it takes for a woman to earn the same salary as her male counterpart. This year, that date is March 15, meaning that the average woman has to work fully two and a half months longer than a man doing the same job to earn the same amount of money. When race is factored into the equation, the differential is even starker: According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Asian American Pacific Islander women earn 87 cents for every dollar a white man earns. Black women earn 63 cents, Native American women earn 60 cents, and Hispanic women earn just 55 cents for every dollar earned by their white male counterparts.

The situation is even more dire for Hispanic mothers, who can expect to earn just 46 cents for every dollar a white father earns. Sadly, the pandemic, ongoing racial injustice, and global upheaval have only magnified these inequities.

Moreover, despite the hardship the enduring pay gap imposes on all women, the Senate failed once again last June to advance the Paycheck Fairness Act after it had passed the House in April. The Act, which was first introduced in 1997 and enjoys strong support from President Biden, is designed to address pay inequity by closing loopholes that have allowed employers to justify gender pay disparities and to strengthen provisions to hold employers accountable for systemic pay discrimination. For now, despite having passed the House four times, the future of this legislation is uncertain.