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The gender and racial wage gap, in one chart

On Equal Pay Day, the wage gap is narrowing, but not quickly enough.

Women hold signs at a rally for equal pay last month in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
A rally for equal pay last month in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Joe Raedle / Getty Images

The gender pay gap may be narrowing, but those pay increases aren’t happening equally for everyone. White women are making a lot more progress than their black and Hispanic peers, according to data on media hourly wages.

Advocates are taking notice of such disparities on Equal Pay Day — Tuesday, April 4 — which represents how far into the year women have to work to catch up to the amount men earned in the previous year. Although women have been steadily catching up to men’s pay for decades, median wages still fall short of white men’s, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute.

Line charts showing median wages over time, split by race and gender.
View the data at the Economic Policy Institute

Median wages for white women at $17.70 an hour have now outpaced those of all black and Hispanic workers. Black and Hispanic women also still earn much less than their male counterparts.

And all women still lag far behind white men, who made $21.86 in median wages last year.

For more on Equal Pay Day, check out the most unequal jobs in America and the economic devaluation of women’s choices.

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