It’s Equal Pay Day. What’s the best way to close the gender wage gap? Join a union | Opinion

For years, the gender pay gap in the U.S. was shrinking. But a new analysis from Pew Research shows that the disparity between average pay for men and women has stagnated, stymying progress for working communities.

March 14 is Equal Pay Day, the day symbolizing how far into the new year women must work to earn what men earned the previous year. On average, this gender pay gap means working women lose out on as much as $10,000 annually, according to the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC).

When we break down these averages, the pay gap is even more stark. Women make 82 cents for every dollar a man earns and Black women and Latinas make far less, the NWLC reports. Meanwhile, women of color are overrepresented in low-wage, high-risk jobs, and a recent study by the Washington Labor Education and Research Center found that the pandemic has worsened that disparity.

At a gut level, the vast majority of Americans know this is wrong. We agree that people should earn a fair wage for the work they do, no matter their gender. But the data tell us that the pay gap still persists. How do we fix such an entrenched problem?

One simple answer: union membership.

Women in union jobs make 23% more on average than non-union women, according to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about $200 more in your weekly check. And union membership reduces the pay gap between men and women by more than 40%.

Regardless of gender, union members typically make more than nonunion workers. That union difference is particularly strong for Latinas and Black women, whose average pay is 40% and 25% higher than their non-union peers, respectively, according to the NWLC.

Quality wages are not the only way union membership levels the playing field for working women. Many union contracts guarantee robust benefits like paid leave and pensions, essentials for working families to thrive. Collective bargaining disrupts the secrecy culture around pay, and offers more opportunities for workers to identify disparities and advocate for themselves. And union membership helps protect people from employer retaliation for doing so. The union difference targets the glass ceiling, the barriers women face to their earning power and career advancement.

And women want to join unions. Gallup polls have found that support for organized labor is at a decades-long high. An Economic Policy Institute analysis estimates that 60 million workers in this country say they would join a union if they could — that’s nearly half of all non-union workers in this country. We’ve seen these stats manifested here in Washington, with an uptick in labor organizing across industries.

Union membership is one of the best tools we have to close gender and racial pay gaps and help all workers build wealth, according to the Center for American Progress. But right now when workers organize, they face barriers that our current labor laws can’t adequately address.

This is why the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act — or PRO Act — is so important. This legislation before Congress would put teeth into our labor laws, update these decades-old laws for the modern work landscape and implement real penalties for employers who use illegal union-busting tactics to block workers’ legally protected right to organize.

It’s no coincidence that as union membership has fallen, income inequality has skyrocketed. To close the gender and racial pay gap and restore prosperity in working communities, we need to remove barriers to organizing and empower more workers to join a union if they choose.

Let’s increase opportunity for working women, because the only glass ceilings we want are the ones made by the professionals in the Glaziers Union.

April Sims of Tacoma is President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO.