Columbus recognizes Latina Equal Pay Day

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The City of Columbus has partnered with local businesses to address the wage gap, which is an issue across various ethnic groups.

What You Need To Know

• Latina women earn 57 cents for every dollar a white man makes
• The City of Columbus recognized Latina Equal Pay Day on Thursday
• Several Columbus businesses signed a pledge to fight the wage gap

According to a study out of Iowa State University, Latina women must work 21 months to make a white man’s yearly earnings. 

Here’s how other ethnic groups compared to the same metric:

• Asian-American women need to work 14 months 
• White women need to work 14.5 months 
• African-American women need to work 18 months
• Native American women need to work more than 20 months 

In order to close the gap, city legislators and business owners gathered to address the issue at an event for Thursday’s Latina Equal Pay Day.

“Almost $1,000,000 that as Latinos we, number one, miss out on. Number two, that means we would have to work literally into our 90s to make what our white male counterparts make at 60” said Lourdes Barroso de Padilla, a Columbus City Council member. 

Barroso de Padilla was a part of a panel that discussed how the city can support Latina women in advocating for themselves. The council recently approved a $20 minimum wage for companies receiving tax incentives, but Barroso de Padilla said that’s not enough.

“If we’re giving them that incentive, that’s just a small way of how we’re closing this gap, right?” said Barroso de Padilla. “We need to continue to do more work like that as a city.”

Maria Alcauter owns a business in central Ohio with her husband. She was one of several business owners that signed the Columbus Women’s Commission’s pay equity pledge. Alcauter said that it’s important to support women in the workforce.

“They need more money to pay for daycare to be the providers, like we are the head of the household,” said Alcauter. “We make a decision sometimes on what our kids need, spending (on) school supplies, clothes. They outgrow everything.”

While the panel focused a lot on business owners, they also said that negotiating is key in closing the gap.

“The job pays less and then that’s when you come in with your negotiating skills and we get you to the place where you’re making what you deserve, right?” said Barroso de Padilla. “We’re starting to close that gap.”

Each business that signed the pledge committed to creating policies and spaces that support their Latina employees and to exploring how to recruit more women on their team.