It’s Equal Pay Day: March 15, 2022

The 2022 Equal Pay Day is Tuesday, March 15. According to the National Committee on Pay Equity, “This date symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year.

“Equal Pay Day was originated by the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) in 1996 as a public awareness event to illustrate the gap between men’s and women’s wages. (It was originally called ‘National Pay Inequity Awareness Day’ and changed to Equal Pay Day in 1998.)

“Since Census statistics showing the latest wage figures will not be available until late August or September, NCPE leadership decided years ago to select a Tuesday in April as Equal Pay Day. (Tuesday was selected to represent how far into the next work week women must work to earn what men earned the previous week.) The date also is selected to avoid religious holidays and other significant events.

“Because women earn less, on average, than men, they must work longer for the same amount of pay. The wage gap is even greater for most women of color.”

History of Equal Pay Day

One measure of success in women’s equal pay is to look at the dates of this day’s celebration, calculated as how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year. Here’s a history over the past ten years, with significant progress starting in 2019.

2011 – April 12

2012 – April 17

2013 – April 9

2014 – April 8

2015 – April 14

2016 – April 12

2017 – April 4

2018 – April 10

2019 – March 15

2020 – March 31

2021 – March 24

2022 – March 15

Of course, inequalities between men and women’s pay also reflects disparities among women by race or nationality. For 2021, these would be the dates – nationally – that would compare to March 15th for equal pay. Note that Asian American women are doing better, overall, among all women, and Latinas are doing far worse, with their equity day almost at the end of the entire year: