As thousands protest Google's handling of sexual harassment cases, the tech industry cannot overlook the pay gap that Hispanic women face today

Meena Harris

It’s been 55 years since President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law, calling out the “unconscionable practice of paying female employees less wages than male employees for the same job.” That law helped millions of women close the wage gap between them and their male colleagues. Yet, others have been less fortunate.

Women all over the country still suffer from this “unconscionable practice.” In the past decade, the pay gap for black and Latina women has hardly changed, while white and Asian women have made significant gains.

According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Hispanic women experience a greater pay gap than any other racial group. In 2017, Latinas earned 54 cents for every dollar earned by white men, which means it would take more than 22 months for a Latina to earn what a typical white man could make in a year.

We launched Phenomenally Latina last week to call attention to this inequity. We partnered with organizations like Justice for Migrant Women and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) who fight on the ground every day to right this wrong — because we know that the accumulated hardships faced by Latinas mean they need more resources, not fewer.

I also write this as thousands of workers at Google walked out of their offices across the country last week, angered by a $90 million exit package received by a male executive accused of sexual harassment.

The "invisible workforce" at many tech companies is not in a position to speak out or walk out

Having worked in the tech industry for much of my career, I know tech workers more than most have the opportunity to witness and speak out against this inequality every day of their professional lives. When I looked around, I saw that those guarding the doors, driving the shuttles, making our breakfast, lunch, and dinner — many who were women, many who were Latinas — were often not in a position to do so. That's because a lot of them are part of an invisible workforce that, through subcontracting, is hidden from the tech industry's supply chain and from the public eye.

Some of the wealthiest corporations on the planet decided to pay miserly wages, contracting workers out to third parties and providing no access to corporate benefits like health care and retirement savings. Many contractor workers at big tech companies cannot afford to go to the doctor. Security workers recounted being unable to afford groceries and eating all their meals at work, where they were covered by the company. Others said they were told to protect the corporate campus from homeless people, despite many of them being homeless themselves — living in vans or tent encampments — completely locked out of the housing market.

More than half of Latina mothers are the primary breadwinners for their families, which rely heavily on their wages to make ends meet. Three million households in this country are headed by Latinas, and about 36 percent of them are below the poverty level. The median annual salary difference between Latinas and white men is $26,403 a year.

If the wage gap were eliminated, a typical Latina working full-time would have enough money for three more years of child care, three years of tuition at a four-year university, almost four years’ worth of food for her family, 18 months of mortgage, or two years’ rent.

Any of these could irrevocably change a family’s fortune for generations — sending a kid to college or getting a starter home is worth thousands and thousands in wealth over time. In contrast, the loss of any, which happens right now, every year, to millions of families, would harm them for years.

I stand in solidarity with every Google employee who left work last week. I also hope those who walked out center the concerns of the low-paid workers, and others who encounter the same type of harassment and abuse as female software engineers at Google, but none of the benefits. These workers are often Latinas, sole breadwinners for their families, one eviction away from total ruin. One of the promises of Phenomenally Latina is emphasizing these voices while drawing attention to structural sexism — these women must be protected, represented, and heard.

Meena Harris is an entrepreneur and the founder of the Phenomenal Woman Action Campaign. She started her career in tech right out of college, when she worked at Facebook. Most recently she ran policy at Slack, and before that, she practiced law at Covington & Burling, where she advised major tech companies in the areas of data privacy and cybersecurity.

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