Because women of color are both women and racial minorities, they face a double jeopardy -- lower economic opportunities due to their race and their gender. This double jeopardy is reflected both in the jobs available to them and in their lower pay.

Among full-time workers, on average black women earn 66 percent of the weekly pay of white men, Hispanic women earn 59 percent, Asian women, 87 percent, and white women, 78 percent. In comparison, black men earn 72 percent; Hispanic men, 65 percent, and Asian men, 111 percent (they earn more because they have higher education levels) of the weekly earnings of white men. Thus, women of color earn less than men of color and also less than white women do.