Colorado women working full time are making 80.9 cents on the dollar compared to men, and compounded by other inequalities over the course of a career, that adds up to a retirement income that falls short.
Older women in Colorado had only 65% of the retirement savings and 69% of the Social Security benefits compared with men, according to new data from the Women’s Foundation of Colorado and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Washington, D.C.
The wide-ranging research on gender and racial gaps released Wednesday also found that from 2019 through 2023 about 1 in 5 Colorado households headed by single women lived in poverty, which is more than double the households headed by single men. Among single women, though, women of color were twice as likely to live in poverty.
White women in Colorado had median annual earnings of $62,000, while Black women earned $47,000 and Latinas earned $43,000. Child care for infants, meanwhile, cost $12,750 in homes and $19,750 in centers on average, which is about one-third of the median, full-time salary for women.
The women’s groups have not previously released data about the wage gap in Colorado, but according to federal data, women’s earnings in Colorado were 74.6 cents on the dollar in 1997 and have been above 80 cents since 2014, except in 2020, when earnings dipped to 78.1 cents.
The two groups released the research as they are pushing for Colorado legislation this year that would strengthen the state’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, a 2021 law that, among other protections, bans prospective employers from asking for salary histories. The groups want additional protections surrounding the use of artificial intelligence in job applications that they say would curb discrimination against women.
They also want lawmakers to make it easier for local areas to generate revenue that could bolster the state child care tax credit, which is for families with children under age 5 making up to $87,000.
To address racial gaps, the groups said they are working on new policy ideas that would support health programs for Black pregnant women, who experienced the highest rates of preterm and low-birthweight births.
In general, Colorado has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the nation, ranking 13th lowest with 4.54 deaths per 1,000 live births. But the disparity between racial groups is significant — the rate for white infants was 3.39 deaths per 1,000 births while the rate for Black infants is 9.73 deaths.
More Black women rely on Medicaid, which paid for 60% of births for Black mothers. The state-federal insurance program for people who are disabled or have low incomes funded one-third of all births in Colorado in 2023.
The combination of inequities in health care, wages, job opportunities and child care accumulates over a lifetime, said Emily Maistrellis, the national institute’s director of the status of women in the states.
“This isn’t just about the wage gap,” she said. “Women are more likely to leave the labor force to care for young children. Or they sacrifice a sizable portion of their incomes to pay for child care. We have also heard about women, particularly women of color, who are facing a maternal health crisis, across the country.”
For women who have to take time off work to deal with pregnancy or birth complications, or for premature newborns, the economic complications are intensified, she said. “Women have less economic security in their retirement years because of how discrimination and systemic racism plays out across those very facets of their lives over the life course,” Maistrellis said.
Delilah Lopez, a member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe in central Montana, said she has relied on Medicaid, child care help and other financial aid to overcome “intergenerational trauma,” a difficult childhood and being a single mom of five children in Colorado. Lopez, now working on her MBA at Colorado State University, is from Great Falls, Montana, the eighth of 11 children. Lopez’s mother, who was raised in an institution similar to a boarding school, died from alcoholism, and multiple siblings died from substance abuse, she said.
“Overcoming all of that in my childhood, and trying to better my future, and my community’s and my children’s, it’s great to know that we have Medicaid and we have services … to help us get on our feet and support ourselves and be less dependent on these programs so that other mothers can use them,” Lopez said. “It has really been a lifesaver and a lifeline for my family. I’m very thankful that I’m able to provide my children with a safe home, and a safe mother that they can come home to who is stable and sober and well.”
Women’s Foundation of Colorado vice president Louise Myrland said she is particularly concerned about recent federal and state budget cuts that are shrinking Medicaid programs and the Trump administration’s plan to freeze funding in Colorado that pays for child care subsidies. The foundation intends to advocate for “policies that can reverse this trend of underinvestment,” she said.
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