“Black women make only around 63 cents while Native American women earn 58 cents, and Hispanic women make just 54 cents in comparison to every…
Fact-checking median pay for black, Hispanic, Native American women
In a tweet timed for Equal Pay Day, the West Virginia Democratic Party sought to spotlight differences in pay between women of color and men.
The April 2 tweet said, “Black women make only around 63 cents while Native American women earn 58 cents, and Hispanic women make just 54 cents in comparison to every dollar a man makes. Today we not only acknowledge the pay gap, we recommit to closing it. #EqualPayDay2019.”
Is this correct? After looking at the underlying data, we found that it’s not far off.
When we contacted the party, they pointed us to a report produced by the National Partnership of Women and Families in April 2019.
The report said that “among women who hold full-time, year-round jobs in the United States, Black women are typically paid 61 cents, Native American women 58 cents and Latinas just 53 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.”
Those aren’t exactly the same numbers that the party offered, but they match the previous year’s version of the partnership’s report. So the data is slightly out of date.
In addition, we should note that the state party left out part of the description. The National Partnership of Women and Families was comparing women who hold full-time, year-round jobs, not just women who are working any amount of time. And they were also comparing those figures to white, non-Hispanic men, not to men more generally.
Potentially, this could make a difference. So we decided to look at the underlying Census Bureau data for the comparison the tweet actually made — earnings by black, Native American, and Hispanic women compared to all men.
Overall, according to the Census data, the median earnings for all male workers was $44,408. For black women, it was $29,708, and for Hispanic women, it was $24,245.
That means that African-American women earned 67 cents for every dollar a man made, while Hispanic women earned 55 cents.
The data for Native American women was harder to locate. The National Partnership of Women and Families pointed us to a different data set from the Census Bureau.
According to that data set, men earned a median of $39,819, while Native American women earned $23,214. That works out to 58 cents on the dollar, as the tweet said.
All told, the tweet’s figure for African Americans was off by four cents, the figure for Hispanics was off by one cent, and the figure was accurate for Native Americans.
So, two of the tweet’s figures are off the mark, but not by much.
A final note: as we’ve written previously, this figure refers to the general disparity between what men and women earn, and does not compare cases of apples to apples.
These comparisons do not adjust for such factors as the degrees and jobs women pursue, the time they take off to care for children, or the years of experience they’ve had.
Other studies have shown a closer match for men and women holding the same jobs.
Our ruling
The West Virginia Democratic Party tweeted, “Black women make only around 63 cents while Native American women earn 58 cents, and Hispanic women make just 54 cents in comparison to every dollar a man makes.”
The tweet is right for Native American women, but the figures for black women and Hispanic women are 67 cents and 55 cents, respectively. That’s not exactly what the tweet said, but it’s not far off.
We rate the statement Mostly True.
PolitiFact Rating: 
Our Sources
West Virginia Democratic Party, tweet, April 2, 2019
U.S. Census Bureau, "PINC-05. Work Experience-People 15 Years Old and Over, by Total Money Earnings, Age, Race, Hispanic Origin, Sex, and Disability Status," 2017
U.S. Census Bureau, "Median Earnings in the Past 12 Months (in 2017 Inflation-Adjusted Dollars) by Sex by Work Experience in the Past 12 Months for the Population 16 Years and Over With Earnings in the Past 12 Months," accessed May 16, 2019
U.S. Census Bureau, "Earnings in the Past 12 Months (in 2017 Inflation-Adjusted Dollars) by Sex by Work Experience in the Past 12 Months for the Population 16 Years and Over with Earnings in the Past 12 Months (American Indian and Alaska Native Alone)," accessed May 16, 2019
National Partnership for Women and Families, analysis of study conducted by U.S. Census Bureau, accessed May 1, 2019
National Partnership for Women and Families, fact sheet, accessed May 1, 2019
