“Today serves as a painful reminder of the appalling wage discrimination Native women continue to face and the ways in which this turns into a wealth and opportunity gap for Native communities. In the United States today, a Native woman is paid just 60 cents on average for every dollar paid to a white man. The wage gap is even more harmful for Native moms, who are paid just 50 cents for every dollar paid to white dads. This gap forces many families into poverty and makes it harder for Native women to afford the food, housing, education, child care and health care their families need.

“The wage gap means Native women have fewer resources to weather the storm of the pandemic, which is having devastating and outsized health and economic impacts on Native communities. We cannot have a just recovery unless we address the disparities that harm Native women and dismantle the structural racism and misogyny that drive them. To help close the wage gap, the U.S. Senate must join the U.S. House in passing the Paycheck Fairness Act to strengthen penalties for wage discrimination and promote pay transparency. Congress must also raise the minimum wage to $15 and build the care infrastructure working moms need to thrive, including universal child care, paid family and medical leave, and a permanently expanded Child Tax Credit. 

“No one should ever be shortchanged on her paycheck due to her gender or race. We will continue to fight until we build an economy of shared prosperity that works for all of us.”