Native Womens Equal Pay Day

date: november 21, 2024

  • 55 cents for "all earners" (full time year-round + part time and part year)

  • 59 cents for full time, year round workers


On November 30, 2023, we will be marking Native Women’s Equal Pay Day. This year, Equal Pay Today, Return to the Heart Foundation, Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women Protect, Protect the Sacred, and Native Women Lead, along with many organizations and activists across the country, will be taking collective action in a national social media storm at 2pm ET/11am PT on November 30. 

On this day, we are raising awareness and shining a light on the fact that Native American women working full-time year round only make, on average, 59 cents on the dollar as compared to non-Hispanic, white men. Worse still, when you look at all Native women earners, they only make 55 cents in comparison to all non-Hispanic, white male earners, one of the most significant wage disparities in the United States. If you break it down by Tribal nation, some Native American women are paid even less

The lasting impacts of colonialism, genocide, and state-sanctioned violence on Native communities continues to be felt today. Native Americans face higher rates of poverty, unemployment, and violence. Recent data shows that the majority of Native American mothers are breadwinners for their families; yet with Native women earning about half the amount of white men, it creates an economic barrier to provide for themselves and their families. Low pay, economic abuse, and the lack of employment protections play a huge role in why so many cannot safely leave abusive situations. Therefore, long-term safety is almost impossible.  

Achieving equity for Native women involves heeding the voices and leadership of Native communities, respecting their sovereignty, traditions, and cultural practices, and making new workplace and other economic justice policies - like equal pay and paid leave – a priority. As a campaign, we must be resolute in our commitment to addressing both the gender and race-based wage gaps– and all the disparities faced by Native communities. 

Raising awareness is just one of the ways to address these struggles. The next step is to take action. During our social media storm, Equal Pay Today and the co-leading organizations are calling on policymakers to pass key pieces of economic security legislation, including: 

  • Paycheck Fairness Act, which would modernize and strengthen the Equal Pay Act of 1963 to better combat pay discrimination and close the wage gap, including by protecting workers from retaliation for discussing pay, banning the use of prior salary history, and codifying pay data collection. (PFA Action Alert: https://p2a.co/96CM2lC #PaycheckFairnessAct)

  • Healthy Families Act, which would set a national standard for paid sick and safe days to allow workers in businesses with 15 or more employees to earn up to seven job-protected paid sick and safe days each year. (HFA Action Alert: https://p2a.co/x89tCis #HealthyFamiliesAct)

  • FAMILY Act, which would provide workers with up to 12 weeks of partial income when they take time off work for their own serious health condition; the serious health condition of a family member; the birth or adoption of a child; to address the effects of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking; and for certain reasons related to military deployment. (FA Action Alert: https://p2a.co/T7zX9dK #FAMILYAct)

Our shared hashtags for the social media storm will be #NativeWomensEqualPay and #EquityForNativeWomen. Please use these hashtags to help build awareness on social media.

We hope you will join us on November 30 and in making equity for Native women a priority this day and always,

Equal Pay Today | Return to the Heart Foundation | Coalition to Stop Domestic Violence Against Native Women | Protect the Sacred | Native Women Lead


Equal Pay Today hosted an intimate conversation with Gina Jackson (Western Shoshone and Oglala), Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Return to Heart Foundation and Allie Young (Diné), Director and Founder of Protect the Sacred, moderated by Deborah J. Vagins, National Campaign Director and Director of Equal Pay Today with Equal Rights Advocates.

Listen to the webinar below!