This year, Latina Equal Pay Day arrives amid a pandemic that has highlighted our nation’s deep rooted systemic racism. Latinas earn on average 55 cents to every dollar earned by white non-Hispanic men, costing them an estimated loss of over a million dollars worth of income in the course of a 40-year career. Furthermore, wage disparities and workers’ rights regarding women who work the fields, or Campesinas, have lingered in oblivion for far too long. Campesinas have borne the brunt of a national health and economic crisis that has done little to recognize the crucial role these women have played in ensuring an uninterrupted food supply chain for all Americans.

Currently, Latina workers face soaring unemployment and are overrepresented in low-wage paying jobs, factors that will undoubtedly hinder our nation’s ability to fully recover from the economic, health and social crisis that this pandemic has brought about. Addressing these issues is of dire importance in order to ensure an inclusive recovery that can also guarantee the advancement of Latino and immigrant families across the country.