Black women are playing significant roles in shaping the direction of emerging social movements; movements that affect the criminal justice system and the rights of working people across the country. Black Lives Matter and Fight for $15 are just two of the influential campaigns intersecting with labor that African American women are leading in. As African American civil rights and human rights activist Ella Baker once said, "Wherever there has been struggle, Black women have been identified with that struggle," and this holds just as strongly today.

As the elections loom, the continued right-wing attacks on labor and working people's hard-won gains show that there is much at stake. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), some of the fastest growing occupations with the greatest increase in job opportunities projected through 2024 will be in the healthcare, retail trade, and food services sectors. These are industries steadily being overtaken by black women. The service sector is 27 percent African-American women. Black women have also had a steady increase in union membership since 2002 at 15.7 percent (after seeing a drop from 1985 to 2000). And although union membership declined sharply among men in 2002 (from 22.1 to 14.7 percent) there was a steady increase among women, thanks in a large part to the jump in union membership of black women in 2002. It is clear from these statistics alone that the only way the labor movement will survive and thrive for the next eight to ten years is if labor takes a proactive stance in investing in Black women's leadership.

As Black women lead the charge for equal rights and a better way of living for working class and poor people, they face intense marginalization and oppression. A 2015 study by the U.S. Department of Labor found that Black mothers have had the highest labor force participation rates historically. That year, Black mothers with children under 18 participated in the labor force at a rate of 76.3 percent. This is higher in comparison to their white (69.6 percent), Asian (at 60.2 percent), and Hispanic (61.6 percent) counterparts.

Despite Black women's willingness to work, this demographic still faces a significant wage gap and are more likely to work in lower paid occupations such as fast food, retail, and the service industry. As the BLS reports, among the major occupational groups, those in service occupations are earning at or below the federal minimum wage at about 10 percent. Black women food service workers also earn only 60 percent of the salaries that their male counterparts earn.

<snip>