What Equal Pay Day Means NOW

Today is Equal Pay Day - a date no one wants to celebrate.

It marks how many days into 2026 women must work just to match what men were paid in 2025.

In 2025, the gender wage gap widened, with women earning 18.6% less than men per hour on average. But the widest gaps fall on Black and Hispanic women. Black women are paid only 68.3% of white men's median wages - a gap of nearly $10 per hour, translating to roughly $20,500 less each year for a full-time worker.

The average woman working full-time, year-round is typically paid just 81 cents for every dollar paid to the average man - down from 83 cents the year before. That means median annual earnings of $57,520 for women compared to $71,090 for men.

And if current trends continue, full pay equity between women and men will not be achieved until 2088.

NOW members have seen firsthand the impact of the Trump Administration's attacks on workers: firing federal employees; erasing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts; ordering mass deportations; and undermining child care and home care providers.

That's why we're fighting back against policies that harm women workers, exacerbate lower pay, and make it harder to enforce anti-discrimination laws.

Congress must act to narrow the gender pay gap. States can do their part by guaranteeing access to paid family and medical leave, mandating pay transparency, raising the minimum wage, and making it easier for workers to form unions.

Understanding the wage gap means understanding the factors that build, nurture, and protect systemic discrimination - pay disparities, occupational barriers, lack of pay transparency, and unpaid care responsibilities within families and communities.

Equal Pay Day is a reminder of the work that still lies ahead. Gender and racial pay gaps persist for many reasons, including the disproportionate burden of low-wage and unpaid caregiving roles carried by women and people of color.

NOW is working to strengthen legislation that will erase Equal Pay Day from the calendar - including the Paycheck Fairness Act, One Fair Wage legislation, and paid family leave for all.

We're not waiting till 2088 for equality.