Underpaid, Overlooked and Overperforming: The Reality for Black Women at Work
Every year, Black Women’s Equal Pay Day forces an uncomfortable but necessary conversation back into public view. The date symbolises how far into the current year Black women in the United States effectively have to work to earn what white men earned in the previous year alone. Although the initiative originates in the US it’s still an issue that is relevant further afield. The undervaluing of Black women’s labour, expertise and leadership is a global issue and one that absolutely deserves more attention in the UK as well.
The frustrating thing is that while conversations around gender pay gaps have become more mainstream in Britain over the last decade, there is still a serious lack of detailed public data specifically examining the pay gap experienced by Black women in the UK. We know ethnicity pay gaps exist and that gender pay gaps exist. We also know that Black women sit at the intersection of both and yet despite endless corporate conversations about inclusion and equity, Black women in Britain still often disappear statistically and structurally from discussions about pay inequality. The lack of comprehensive data does not mean the issue is not happening but in corporate spaces which often only respect data (for obvious reasons) the issue will continue to be overlooked in the UK.
In the United States, however, the numbers remain impossible to dismiss. Recent data from organisations including the National Women’s Law Center continues to show that Black women are paid significantly less than white men on average, despite decades of supposed progress around workplace equality. Current figures indicate that Black women in the US still earn roughly 66 cents for every dollar earned by white non-Hispanic men. Over the course of a career, that gap can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost earnings, reduced pension contributions, lower savings and diminished long-term financial security. These are not simply abstract statistics; they don’t exist in isolation. They affect housing, healthcare, business ownership, family support, generational wealth and quality of life.
What concerns me is how often discussions about pay inequality are framed as if they are simply about negotiation skills or individual confidence rather than systemic patterns. Black women are constantly told to “know their worth,” ask for more or negotiate harder, but those conversations rarely examine how bias shapes perceptions of value in the first place. It is one thing for Black women to recognise their value internally. It is another thing entirely for organisations, industries and decision-makers to consistently respect and compensate that value appropriately.
Even as a business owner, this issue feels deeply personal to me because underpayment does not disappear simply because you work for yourself. I have lost count of the number of times organisations and potential clients have approached me enthusiastically about my expertise, ideas or visibility, only to attempt to drastically undervalue the labour behind it once fees are discussed. I know many other Black women entrepreneurs, consultants and creatives who have experienced the same thing. There is often an assumption that Black women should simply be grateful for the opportunity or the visibility even when our expertise is precisely what organisations are seeking out in the first place.
What makes this particularly frustrating is that Black women are simultaneously expected to overperform professionally while often being undercompensated for that labour. Across corporate environments, entrepreneurship, media, academia and the creative industries, Black women are frequently expected to deliver exceptional results whilst navigating barriers that many others do not face. We are expected to absorb bias professionally, maintain composure under pressure, contribute to diversity initiatives, mentor others informally and consistently exceed expectations, all while still having to justify our value repeatedly. This is why conversations about underpayment cannot be separated from larger discussions about race, gender and professional visibility. Pay gaps are not simply financial issues! These gaps reflect whose labour is considered valuable and underpayment is often a symptom of deeper structural inequalities that shape recruitment, promotion, leadership opportunities and workplace culture overall.
The timing of these conversations also feels particularly significant right now. Since 2023, there has been a noticeable shift in the corporate climate surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion in both the UK and the United States. Many organisations that once publicly championed racial equity have quietly scaled back DEI programmes, reduced resources or become increasingly cautious in how they discuss race in professional settings. In the US especially, anti-DEI rhetoric remains aggressive and politicised and conversations about racial inequality are sometimes treated as controversial rather than necessary.
In Britain, the rollback is quieter but no less significant. There is still a tendency within UK professional culture to avoid direct conversations about race altogether, particularly in corporate spaces that prefer the language of general inclusion over addressing structural anti-Blackness specifically. The result is that Black women are often expected to navigate workplace inequality while simultaneously being discouraged from speaking too openly about it. It takes a lot of courage to speak up when the stakes are so high especially during precarious economic conditions.
I also think we need to be more honest about how underpayment impacts confidence, visibility and long-term career progression. Constantly having your labour undervalued can shape the way people see themselves professionally. It can discourage people from pursuing leadership positions, asking for investment, charging appropriately for services or positioning themselves publicly as experts. This is one of the reasons I speak so often about personal branding and professional visibility, particularly for Black women and other marginalised professionals.
Visibility matters because invisibility rarely leads to fair compensation.
When people understand your expertise, your impact and the value of your work clearly, it becomes harder for others to minimise your contributions quietly. Building a strong personal brand is not simply about aesthetics or social media visibility. It is about creating professional leverage and for Black women especially, personal branding can become an important tool for reclaiming authority and opportunity in environments that too often underestimate us by default. However, I also understand why visibility can feel complicated. Many Black women have learned through experience that visibility can attract additional scrutiny alongside opportunity. The more visible and successful you become, the more likely you are to encounter people who question your expertise or attempt to undervalue your labour despite clear evidence of your impact. That contradiction is exhausting, but it is also why community, transparency and collective conversations matter so much.
One thing I encourage Black women to do consistently is talk openly about money with people they trust. Some of the most important lessons I have learned came through honest conversations with peers about rates, salaries, contracts and workplace experiences. Transparency helps people to recognise patterns that they may otherwise internalise as personal failure rather than systemic inequality. Too many workplaces benefit from silence around pay because silence protects inequity.
At the same time, I think there also needs to be greater introspection from organisations, industries and individuals about how they perceive the labour of Black women overall. Many people genuinely believe they support equity while still unconsciously undervaluing Black women professionally. Addressing pay gaps requires confronting those uncomfortable realities honestly rather than reducing inequality to individual ambition or confidence alone. Progress in this area has been painfully slow and will remain so if the conversation loses a sense of urgency. As I mentioned earlier, the impact of pay inequality stretches far beyond individual salaries. It affects wealth accumulation, business growth, home ownership, pensions, financial stability and future generations. When Black women are consistently underpaid and undervalued, the consequences ripple far beyond the workplace itself.
That is why initiatives like Black Women’s Equal Pay Day still matter, even outside the United States. Of course, awareness alone will never solve these issues but silence certainly won’t either. Conversations around fair pay, visibility and workplace equity need to remain at the forefront of our minds precisely because so many systems still depend on Black women quietly accepting less when they deserve so much more.