Maryland labor officials released a report Tuesday concluding that Latina women here earn $1.8 million less in their lifetimes compared with White men doing the same work, one of the largest such earning gaps in the country.
Maryland
Women in Maryland earn 86 cents on the dollar. Latinas have it worse.
In Maryland, women earn 86 cents on the dollar compared with men, according to averaged data from 2018-2022, the report found. The state has a smaller gap overall than the rest of the nation, but a larger one for women of color. For every dollar a White man makes in Maryland, a Latina earns 50 cents and a Black woman earns 56 cents.
Over the course of a career, the gaps compound into more than $1 million less for women of color, compared with what a White man would earn. For Latinas, that’s the fourth worst gap in the country, the report said.
“That’s a lot of money,” said Gabriela Lemus, executive director for advocacy group Maryland Latinos Unidos. “That could make an enormous difference over a Latina’s lifetime, her family’s and her ability … to retire with dignity. It’s the difference between making sure her children have access to what they need and her own needs as she ages out of the workforce.”
The report cited several reasons for the overall pay gap, including a lack of affordable child care, pay secrecy and “occupational overcrowding,” where there is an overrepresentation of certain demographic groups in a single industry.
Democratic women who gathered at the Equal Pay Day event Tuesday promoted a bill that is designed to lessen the gap by requiring that all employers include a pay range in job postings.
The legislation is poised to pass the Maryland Senate as soon as this week, a milestone not reached by prior versions of the bill.
It builds on a prior 2020 law that forbids employers from asking about salary histories and requires them to provide applicants with a job’s salary range upon request. Maryland’s Equal Pay for Equal Work law already forbids gender pay discrimination.
But this year’s bill only advanced after senators struck provisions that would allow people to file lawsuits for violations of the posting law, instead leaving it up to state authorities to investigate. The Maryland Department of Labor estimated that roughly 120 alleged violations would be lodged each year.
“It’s a form of discrimination that thrives when people lack information about the economic value of the work they’re trying to do. And that’s why the salary transparency legislation is so important,” said state Sen. Ariana B. Kelly (D-Montgomery), who co-sponsored the bill. Del. Jennifer White (D-Baltimore County), who sponsored the House version, said the transparency will not fully close the gender gap but “this creates a more equal playing field.”
About a half-dozen states and several major cities, including D.C., have similar pay transparency laws on the books.
“This is an issue of basic fairness, and this is an issue of economic strength,” Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller (D) said during an event at the Maryland State House, where she noted the long slog toward equality. “You can be sure it is extremely frustrating. But I think everyone in this room, including the tremendous women behind me, know that progress oftentimes is incremental, right?”