November 19, 2026 is Native Women’s Equal Pay Day.
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57 cents for “all earners” (full time year-round + part time and part year)
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62 cents for full time, year round workers
Native women experience one of the widest pay gaps in the country. On Native Women’s Equal Pay Day, which falls within Native American Heritage Month, we celebrate and honor the rich history and culture of indigenous peoples while demanding action to address widespread economic insecurity for Native women.
A Native woman loses over a million dollars of income to the wage gap over the course of her career. Native women working fulltime, year-round are paid only 62 cents on the dollar compared to non-Hispanic, white men. The gap widens to a devastating 57 cents if we take into account all earners, including part-time and part-year workers. These numbers reflect concrete losses that are impacting Native women’s ability to cover basic necessities, build savings and wealth over time, and maintain their safety and sovereignty.
These gaps are driven by various factors, including the lasting impacts of colonialism, genocide, and state-sanctioned violence on Native communities. Native women endure high rates of occupational segregation coupled with significant barriers to employment, educational opportunity, and financial services and products. Native women also face higher rates of poverty, unemployment, and violence. The lack of sufficient data and disaggregated data on Native populations has rendered many Native women invisible in available wage gap figures. The federal administration’s assaults on demographic data collection by the EEOC, the Census Bureau, and other agencies will only deepen this problem.
Increasing Native women’s safety depends on investing in their economic security, growing their financial independence, and improving collection of disaggregated data to capture their lived realities. Historically, the federal government has failed to invest in Tribal nations, communities, and women. The current administration has now slashed millions of dollars in Tribal funding and rescinded grants across federal agencies, deeply impacting the delivery of essential services, including domestic violence and victim services funds to Native communities. This is further exacerbated by the fact that less than 1 percent of foundation and corporate philanthropic investment in the U.S. goes to Native-serving causes or organizations.
Achieving equity, economic security, and safety for Native women involves heeding the voices and leadership of Native communities, respecting their sovereignty, traditions, and cultural practices, as well as ensuring that communities have the resources they need to thrive. This Native Women’s Equal Pay Day, we are calling on Congress to restore and bolster investments in Tribal nations that includes emergency direct service funding for Native survivors and investments in Native women-led organizations.
We hope you will join us in making equity for Native women a priority this day and always,