Black and Hispanic women face the longest wait for equal pay

The gender pay gap isn’t closing anytime soon, especially for women of color. Black and Hispanic women earn the least compared with men, and a Bankrate analysis of the latest income data from the Census shows it could take generations for their pay to catch up.

The pay gap varies sharply by race and ethnicity among women. Black women earn about 67 cents for every dollar white, non-Hispanic men make, while Hispanic women earn 58 cents. 

Asian women are nearest to closing the gap, earning 94 cents for every dollar white men earn. White women earn around 80 cents per dollar compared to their male counterparts, consistent with the overall gender gap.

Gender pay gaps by race and ethnicity

The gender pay gap has narrowed for all groups of women over the past few decades, but the gains have been greater for white and Asian women than for Black and Hispanic women. Here’s how the earnings gap has changed over time for each group:

The picture shifts when comparing women with men of the same race and ethnicity. Black and Hispanic women have made faster strides toward parity with men of the same race, now earning 91% and 88% as much, respectively. Asian women, however, continue to face a much wider divide, earning just 79% of what Asian men make.

The wage gap likely won’t close evenly across groups