Latinas Have the Last ‘Equal Pay Day’ of the Year. These Women Want to Do Something About That

It's not quite a cause for celebration, but November 20 is Latina Equal Pay Day, which marks the point in 2019 at which the average Latina's wages at last equal what a white man earned in 2018.

For women overall, it takes about 16 months to make what a white man makes in 12. But for Latina women—whose Equal Pay Day is the last observed of the year—that number is much higher. It takes nearly 23 months to even out, with Latina's typically earning only 54 cents for every dollar a man makes. To mark this…inauspicious occasion, Phenomenal Woman Action Campaign founder Meena Harris—who spoke with Alicia Garza for Black Women’s Equal Pay Day—sat down with Jen Zeano, creator of the popular JZD Latina Power shirt line and founder of her own brand, Jen Zeano Designs. Here, Harris and Zeano chat about their new collaboration, Phenomenal x Latina Power, what it means to be a queer entrepreneur, and the strength she finds in her Latinx community.

Meena Harris: Latina Equal Pay Day is not a celebratory day. It’s about recognizing that we still have a very long way to go in terms of pay equity. Latinas experience the widest gap. What does equal pay and equity mean to you?

Jen Zeano: It means being able to close those gaps. For so long we’ve kind of settled into the fact that we are never going to get paid equally to our white counterparts. But now that I’m a business owner, I’ve surrounded myself with more Latina business owners. Also people working in the field, like attorney or nurses, who are not getting paid what they should be getting paid. We have to do more. Growing awareness of [the gap] is one of the most important things. A lot of people don’t even know that we get paid so much less, and that it makes it so hard for us to create that generational wealth that everybody so deeply craves.

We have to work 10 times harder to try to get [generational wealth] and create these new normals for our families. One of my biggest goals in life is that I want to be one the last generations [in my family] that struggles to pay rent. We shouldn’t struggle to pay rent, but unfortunately, so many in our community struggle to pay rent every month. Getting out of that, I feel, is one of the most important things that we have to do.

Harris: One thing that is really important to the Phenomenal Woman Action Campaign is intersectionality. Recognizing that for folks who have multiple identities, it can mean layered discrimination. In your case, you’re not just Latina; you are also LGBTQ. I think it’s amazing that you and your wife, Veronica Zeano, are building this company together. What is it like being a queer Latinx entrepreneur and building a business with your wife?

Zeano: It’s so much. I feel like being a queer Latina in itself has been a journey in a way. When I first came out to my parents, they weren’t super understanding. It took a couple of months for them to come around. And my wife hasn't had a relationship with her parents in more than five years because they couldn’t come to terms with the fact that she’s married to a woman.

We have been so blessed that our community has been so supportive. We’ve been super open about it. People that follow us and are familiar with our brand know that it’s both of us running the business and they have been super, super supportive and always amazing. I surround myself with people who are also queer Latinas. So that always creates a really empowering community. But it’s also been really difficult because when you have to meet potential business partners, or you have to meet people you want to collaborate with, it’s almost like you always have to "come out." You never really know how they are going to take it.

It’s definitely a little more complicated in the Latinx community because there is so much of that "machismo culture" that still is exists in our community. That can make it a little more difficult because people aren’t as accepting or understanding. But, in general, we have been very blessed. I think it just adds to our story, and I’m very proud of who we are. We are always open about it, and we try to not ever be afraid of how people are going to react when they find out who we are.

Harris: Building on this, you've shared with me before that you’ve had funders tell you, "Oh, you’re too niche," or, "The Latina market is not big enough for us to invest in this." How has that made you feel?

Zeano: It’s very, very frustrating. It happens to me all the time. Not even just investors, but people who are just starting to get to know the business. They’re like, “This is as big as you’re ever going to get. You’re too niche. There isn’t enough people out there wanting this. The market too small.” It’s not true. There are so many people who are craving this kind of business and craving this kind of representation. We have so much to bring to the table, and people just don’t want to include us at the table. It doesn’t affect me because I know that I’ve chosen to empower the Latina community, and that doesn’t make my business any less than if I was targeting everybody.

Harris: As you know, last year Phenomenal launched our Phenomenally Latina collection. Now we’re doing Phenomenal x Latina Power in partnership with you. What do each of those phrases—"Phenomenally Latina" and "Latina Power"—mean to you?

Zeano: These are phrases that I feel create an empowering movement for us as Latina women. When I was younger, I was super ashamed [of my identity]. I was born in Mexico, and when I came, here I would get bullied because I had an accent and I was not white. Think about when you go to school; on the first day of class, they always ask you, "Where were you born and what did you do this summer?" And I hated it because I always had to say that I was born in Mexico and it was automatically like the other kids were going to have something to bully me for. I hated that growing up. Now, as an adult, I know I was actually a force to be reckoned. So coming to a point in my life where I could come up with a phrase like "Latina Power," or feel proud wearing a shirt that says "Phenomenally Latina," is a huge moment of realization that we are a group of people that deserve to feel empowered and deserve to be seen.

Meena Harris is the founder of the Phenomenal Woman Action Campaign.

Originally Appeared on Glamour