By Selen Ozturk

Inequity still dominates the lived experience of many Californian Black women in the workplace, a new report suggests.

The March 2025 report — “Invisible Labor, Visible Struggles: The Intersections of Race, Gender, and Workplace,” released by the California Black Women’s Collective Empowerment Institute (CBWCEI) — analyzes a December 2024 survey of 452 employed Black women statewide, conducted by public opinion research firm EVITARUS; the data found that workplace discrimination remains an active impediment to Black women’s career advancement.

California has over 1.1 million Black women, making it the fifth-largest such state in the country, and comprising 6.7% of the state’s total population.

“What we found is that there are still systemic barriers that limit opportunities for Black women … and these inequalities that make it harder to maintain economic stability exist at the intersection of race and gender,” said Kellie Todd Griffin, president and CEO of CBWCEI, at a Tuesday, March 3 Ethnic Media Services briefing on the report.

The new report builds on the findings of a similar August 2023 survey of 1,258 California Black women voters which found that two in five reported that it was “challenging to pay for basic expenses” and said “racism and discrimination have limited their income and earning.”

Among Black women voters, eight in 10 reported that “a top concern is being discriminated against or mistreated because of their race or gender.”

“The first thing that we have to strengthen is wage equity, which we can’t achieve if we don’t address the workplace environment, how discrimination can impact economic mobility,” said Griffin.

While Black women in California made $60,000 in total income for just over $90,000 that white men earned as of 2023, this wage gap isn’t projected to close until 2121, a California Budget Center analysis of Census information finds.

“There’s an even greater, unique set of challenges for Black single moms, who are earning the least,” said CBWCEI researcher Dr. Sharon Uche — an average of $53,000 in total income.

As 67% of Black households in California are headed by single mothers, greater child care investments and discrimination complaint protections by the state are crucial to improving their quality of life, she added.

One bold recent proposal on this front reached the national level with an October 2024 bill by California representative Rho Khanna that would cap child care at $10 a day for families earning under $250,000 annually.

While an executive order issued by President Trump last January revoked diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and affirmative action directives on the federal level, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act still prevents job discrimination based on race, color, ancestry, national origin and sex, and the California Civil Rights Department has a right-to-sue process for workplace discrimination complaint cases that aren’t pursued.

Still, the new CBWCEI report finds that while “most Black women in California’s workforce are able to find at least some sense of satisfaction and personal fulfillment in their work, few would say that they are very satisfied,” said Dr. Shakari Byerly, managing partner at EVITARUS. “Because most face significant barriers to advancement, they feel their contributions are undervalued.”

While 59% of respondents reported being at least “somewhat” satisfied in their current job, 38% said they were “unsatisfied.”

Furthermore, 57% — nearly three in five Black women — said they “experienced racism and/or discrimination at work.”

“I’m the only African American in my department,” said a 38 year old frontline nonprofit staff member based in Los Angeles and surveyed in the report. “I’m held to a different standard than many coworkers who share the same ethnicity as my supervisor.”

Nearly one-third of Black women, or 32%, had a supervisor make a negative comment about them, with 81% saying it was unjustified; race or ethnicity was cited as a key factor in these comments by “a lot” for 64% and by “some” for 22%.

“When it comes to drivers of dissatisfaction, Black women identified compensation, benefits, company leadership and work culture as key drivers,” explained Byerly. “Looking at other indicators of workplace treatment, the lack of career advancement is particularly striking.”

Only 16% of survey respondents strongly agreed “that opportunities for leadership and/or advancement in their workplace are available to them,” while 49% felt “marginalized, excluded from or passed over for opportunities at work.”

“Specifically, they’re not being invited to important meetings, and coworkers are receiving coaching, mentorship or other helpful information about how to be successful, but they are not receiving that same kind of support,” said Byerly.

Despite these figures, a solid majority of 64% were able to find “at least some level of support in the workplace from supervisors and/or colleagues”; levels of reported satisfaction were 10 points higher for women with Black supervisors than with those of other ethnicities.

“Having more Black women colleagues makes a difference for advancement opportunities and satisfaction with the workplace environment,” added Byerly. “Currently, Black women are being excluded … Race- and gender-based harm requires race- and gender-based redress.”

One recent win on this front is California Senate Bill 1137, authored by Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas and passed in November 2024, explicitly recognizing that state laws prohibiting discrimination based on factors like race, color, ancestry, national origin and sex also apply to cases where these intersect, leading to compounded discrimination.

“The data highlights that despite all this, we haven’t made much progress in moving the needle. Systemic barriers still exist when it comes to Black women, even in a liberal state like California,” said Glenda Gill, president and CEO of Save A Girl, Save A World, a professional mentorship organization for Black college and high school students.

“Given that Black women are the fastest-growing demographic of employees and entrepreneurs, this is just disturbing,” she continued.

From 2014 to 2019, majority Black women-owned firms grew by 50% — the highest growth rate among all demographic groups.

By 2020, Black women owned 37.2% of all Black-owned employer businesses, totaling 52,374 firms.

“We need more people in the workforce, and if we don’t address these issues, they’re not going to want to be in the workforce,” added Gill. “This data shows us the house is on fire. We’re working on the issues to put out the fire.”