What Women in New York Earn Compared to Men

[Want to get New York Today by email? Here’s the sign-up.]

It’s Tuesday. The Queens Library is changing its name to the Queens Public Library. Why? “To reinforce who is at the center of our work and to whom the library belongs,” a library spokeswoman told me. Its new tagline: “We speak your language.”

Weather: Bundle up. The day will start with a wind chill that makes it feel like the low 30s. Warmer this afternoon, but the wind will get even stiffer. There’s a chance of rain tonight.

Alternate-side parking: In effect until April 18 (Holy Thursday).

Today is Equal Pay Day, which represents how far into the current year the average American woman must work to earn what the average man did in the previous year.

This pay gap sits on top of all the other financial disparities women face, from health insurance and transportation costs to dry cleaning prices.

Women of all races and ethnicities who work full time, year-round in the United States are paid 80 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earn, according to United States Census Bureau data analyzed by the American Association of University Women.

The association also says women in New York State earn 88 percent of men’s salaries. (Its website even breaks down the gender wage gap by congressional district: Find yours here.)

In New York City, a 2018 report by the city comptroller’s office highlighted the gap for black and Latin women. Black women working full time earn 57 cents “for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men,” the report says. For Latinas, that figure is 49 cents.

That means for many women of color, Equal Pay Day is months away. You can see a breakdown at EqualPayToday.org.

Here are some myth busters about the gender wage gap.

Research shows that the gap does not exist purely because of job choice or because women take time off to care for children; it’s much more complicated.

How do we know? By comparing women and men with equal experience.

And yes, the wage gap has slowly narrowed in the United States. At its current rate, it will close for the average woman by 2059, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research predicts.

What might close the gap?

• Employers can offer pay transparency. When salaries are known, the wage gap shrinks.

• Managers asking job applicants for salary history may perpetuate the pay gap. Also, it’s illegal to ask about it in New York City.

• Women are asking for more money, but it’s important to note, as Otegha Uwagba did last month in New York magazine’s The Cut, that they are “more likely to be refused or suffer blowback for daring to broach the topic.”

[Read more women, gender and society in The Times’s In Her Words newsletter.]

Calling All Regulars

Does the waiter know your name? Do you have a standing spot at the bar? Then you’re a regular, and we want to hear from you.

Click here and tell us your story. Your name and comments may be published, but your contact information will not.

From The Times

Governor Cuomo is in line to become the highest-paid governor in the country. [Rochester Democrat & Chronicle]

This video features a man who says he earns thousands of dollars by reporting idling vehicles on city streets. [Vice News]

Here is a trailer for a zombie comedy movie filmed in the Catskills. [Albany Times Union]

Well played, L.A. Times, on your sendup of New York’s dining scene. [Los Angeles Times]

Coming up today

Practice creative writing at the Ryder Library in Brooklyn. 11 a.m. [Free]

Meet Matthew Gray Gubler and get a signed copy of the actor’s new book, “Rumple Buttercup: A Story of Bananas, Belonging, and Being Yourself,” at WORD Brooklyn. 7 p.m. [$15 (advance online purchase of the book)]

Take a West African dance class at Gibney Dance Choreographic Center in Manhattan. 6 p.m. [$17]

— Elisha Brown

Events are subject to change, so double-check before heading out. For more events, see the going-out guides from The Times’s culture pages.

And finally: An unwritten biography of Al Smith

The world is waiting for the historian and author Robert Caro to finish his long-running series on former President Lyndon B. Johnson.

This month, Mr. Caro, 83, will instead publish a memoir about his own life (a good deal of which has been spent reporting on Johnson, but he also wrote a biography of Robert Moses, who reshaped New York’s physical and political landscape over decades).

In a recent interview with David Marchese for The New York Times Magazine, Mr. Caro acknowledged that he would have liked to have published even more books.

Like what, exactly?

“A biography of Al Smith is the one that I’m sorry I’m not going to get to do,” Mr. Caro said. “The more you learn about Al Smith, the more you realize he is probably the most forgotten consequential figure in American history.”

Smith was a governor of New York, famous for his sense of humor and progressive politics. His policies were credited as groundwork for what became Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Smith served as governor from 1919 to 1920 and again from 1923 to 1928.

He also was the Democratic nominee for president in 1928 — and the first Catholic to be nominated by a major political party. He lost to Herbert Hoover.

It’s Tuesday — make time to read.

Metropolitan Diary: Browsing

Dear Diary:

I was browsing at a bookstore in Brooklyn when I overheard a comment by another customer.

“This is supposed to be very interesting,” she said, picking up a book and showing it to a companion.

There was a short pause.

“But I don’t think I want to read anything interesting right now,” she said.

— Vernon Vig

New York Today is published weekdays around 6 a.m. Sign up here to get it by email. You can also find it at nytoday.com.

We’re experimenting with the format of New York Today. What would you like to see more (or less) of? Post a comment or email us: [email protected].