This Latina Doubled Her Salary After Being Empowered by Equal Pay Day

Carla Santamaria was more than a year into her job in higher education when she first learned about Latina Equal Pay Day. This symbolic day, usually in October, marks when Latinas finally earn what white, non-Hispanic men earned in the year prior. It prompted her to question if she was being fairly compensated at work, where she earned $51,000 a year as a campus director.

After Latina Equal Pay Day in October, Santamaria emailed her manager to ask if she was getting equal pay for equal work. Her manager launched an investigation, and in February, he shared with her that they determined that she had erroneously been set to a lower pay band than she was supposed to earn but that there was nothing they could do to correct it or provide back pay. Months later, she found out that an HR error had resulted in her making $10,000 less per year than her co-workers with the same title and qualifications.

"I was furious and thought my parents didn't bring me to this country for me to be exploited at an office job," Santamaria says. "I didn't give up growing up in Honduras with my grandmother for me to be underpaid and overworked. As much as it was really difficult for me to leave that job because I loved that job, I decided that I was going to love myself more."

While Women's Equal Pay Day falls on March 25 this year — marking how far into the year women have to work to earn what men earned in the previous year — Latinas have to work seven extra months to finally earn what the average woman makes. Latinas face the biggest wage gap of any group of women, and this year, Latina Equal Pay Day won't come until Oct. 8. Latinas stand to lose over $1 million over a 40-year career due to this wage gap, according to a National Women's Law Center report.

When Santamaria's manager told her nothing could be done to address her salary discrepancy, she decided it was time to move on. She pivoted from higher education to the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) field and became a DEI coordinator in a local healthcare system. Though she was eager to take on this new role, which paid $14,000 more yearly than her previous job, Santamaria says she regrets not negotiating her salary when she took the new job.

"I felt a lot of shame because, at that point, I had already helped friends and clients negotiate their pay," Santamaria says. At her six-month mark on the job as DEI coordinator, she asked her manager if they could revisit her compensation. "She laughed at me and said, 'That's not gonna happen,'" Santamaria says.

Santamaria reached out to connections on Facebook and LinkedIn, set up networking meetings, and went on 35 coffee chats in 90 days. She researched job titles, descriptions, and salaries aligned with her goals. In less than a year, Santamaria secured a new role, but this time, she was equipped to negotiate her ideal pay raise.

She says she went from earning $51,000 a year in June 2021 to making $120,000 a year in May 2022. Today, Santamaria continues to earn six figures as a DEI manager at a tech company. She also supports first-generation college students and professionals through her First Gen Coaching consultancy and podcast. For the first time in her career, she started an emergency fund, opened a Roth IRA, and bought a house.

"By increasing my income through my nine-to-five and my coaching business, I have been able to realize that retirement isn't something for white people; it's something that I can actively work toward," Santamaria says. "My goal is financial independence, and I'm finally in a position to think about investing for retirement and doing so comfortably, rather than thinking about it and panicking."

With Latina Equal Pay Day still seven months away, Santamaria notes that one of the biggest barriers Latinas face when it comes time to achieve equal pay is the inequality and lack of transparency that's built into many companies' compensation policies.

"Don't beat yourself up. If you have been discriminated against based on your gender or if you've been taken advantage of because you didn't know how much money to ask for, that's not your fault," she says. "The system is designed to work that way, but you can empower yourself with knowledge and go get better pay."

If you plan to advocate for a higher salary this year, Santamaria suggests researching the standard market pay rate for your skills so that you can get paid accordingly.

"We deserve the whole dollar. It's not even about getting paid your worth because your worth as a person, as a human, is inherent. But your skills and what you contribute to the workplace does have a numeric value. So find that numeric value and go after it," Santamaria says. "This is how we can all start making a bigger impact on our community because the more we have, the more we have to give."

Zameena Mejia is a Dominican American freelance writer born and raised in New York City. She is passionate about storytelling and uplifting diverse voices in beauty, wellness, and Latinx lifestyle. Zameena holds a BA in journalism and Latin American studies from the State University of New York at New Paltz and an MA in business reporting from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism.