Today is Latina Equal Pay Day - the day when Latinas in the United States finally catch up to what white men earned the previous year. This is the last Equal Pay Day of the year, meaning that Latinas will have to work the longest to be valued the same as others. Latinas in the U.S. earn an average of 57 cents (open in new tab) compared to the $1 (open in new tab) earned by non-Hispanic white men doing the same job. We literally have to work twice as hard to be seen, heard, and recognized equally.

I grew up in Virginia and learned this at an early age. Waitress, school clerk, gas station attendant, cyber security specialist. I worked minimum wage jobs with no health care and countless late nights calculating how to earn a dollar from 15 cents. Over the years, I learned to advocate for myself to get the recognition and compensation I deserved, but I also knew that institutional change was needed to achieve the kind of equality I was fighting for.

My mother taught me the importance of inspiring those around me. My mother always told me, "If you look down on someone, it's because you are pulling them up." So when I was approached by the National Organization for Women (NOW) (opens in new tab) to become a member in 2013, I knew it was time to expand my political activism from knocking on doors to working hand-in-hand with women facing the same economic challenges I was. About a year later, I started the first NOW chapter in my county and went on to serve as vice president of the state chapter. Together, we organized our community to educate and advocate for women and girls. We brought issues such as paid family leave, equal pay for equal work, and access to reproductive health care to the forefront of the federal conversation

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Our country was well on its way to electing the first ever female president who would bring her own life experiences to the table to fight for equality. But just three years later, everything changed; when Donald Trump was elected in 2016, I was angry as hell. I knew that a Trump administration would only set women back further, especially black and brown women. I refused to sit idly by and let it happen. After mobilizing Virginia women to join the March on Washington, I went home, grabbed my clipboard and sneakers, and filed my candidacy for the first time.

In 2017, I was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in a blue wave that brought record numbers of women legislators. I am proud to have made history as the first Afro-Latina to serve in the Virginia House. Since arriving in Richmond, we have wasted no time. I led an important effort to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) (opens in new tab), making Virginia the 38th state to do so in January 2020. Virginia's ratification paved the way for the ERA to be added to the Constitution after meeting the three-fourths threshold required by law.

Now is the time for our nation to put its money where its mouth is and enshrine equality in the Constitution. It states, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any state, on account of sex. Congress has the power to enforce the provisions of this article through appropriate legislation; ratification of the ERA would pave the way for equal pay legislation and guarantee legal protections for women in the workplace throughout the United States. It would also guarantee that individuals would not have to work an extra day, or even 294 extra days, to earn the wages that their white male colleagues are earning for the same work. And ultimately, it will show ourselves and the world that America truly values the contributions of women.

As Virginia and 37 other states have demonstrated, we have the tools to deliver on our nation's promise to continue the fight for more full integration. It is time for America to pay women what we are worth and show every girl that her work and contributions are as valuable as those of others. Let's pass the ERA now and make this "Latina Equal Pay Day" our last.