CNBC: U.S. moms working full-time are paid $0.75 for every dollar paid to fathers, leading to devastating economic losses

5 May 2021

By Courtney Connley

In the United States, mothers working full-time, year-round make an average of just $0.75 for every dollar paid to full-time working fathers, according to a new analysis from the National Women’s Law Center.

As a result, the average working mom has to work an additional five months into the new year to reach the same pay fathers earned the previous year, leading Mother’s Equal Pay Day to fall on May 5 this year. That’s nearly two months after equal pay day was reached for women on March 24, as full-time working women on average earn just $0.82 for every dollar paid to men.

This pay gap for working mothers leads to a loss of $1,275 a month and $15,300 a year in wages. For women of color, this gap is even higher with full-time working Latina, Native American and Black moms being paid an average of $0.46, $0.50 and $0.52, respectively, for every dollar paid to white fathers.

“This loss is depriving moms of their ability to weather this [Covid-19] storm,” NWLC Director of Research Jasmine Tucker tells CNBC Make It. “We know that about one in four women who are unemployed right now have been looking for work for a year…just imagine what that $15,000 or more could do if you had that sitting in the bank because you were paid what you were owed before this all happened.”

In front-line occupations like nursing, waitressing and housekeeping, full-time working mothers are paid just $0.84, $0.67 and $0.65, respectively, for every dollar paid to full-time working fathers doing the same job.

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