Black women are playing a critical role in America’s economic recovery.
Four years ago, the pandemic irrevocably changed our lives. We’ve come a long way since then, but our communities were turned upside down, with Black families—and Black women in particular—bearing the brunt of the pandemic’s public health and economic impacts.
In just one month, the unemployment rate for Black women nearly tripled, exceeding 16 percent. At the height of the pandemic, we mourned the daily loss of over 3,000 American lives, with Black communities facing disproportionately high numbers of COVID cases. Prior to vaccines, Black women who got COVID also experienced higher risks of complication and mortality.
When President Biden and Vice President Harris took office, their first priority was to tackle these two intertwined crises. They knew that too often during economic recessions, communities of color are hit hardest and never fully recover, as seen with the financial crisis continuing to impact Black Americans over a decade later. This time around, the President and Vice President took decisive action through an economic agenda that has brought about the most equitable recovery in American history.
The broad-based gains were seen across our communities—in key metrics like jobs, wages, and wealth—most notably for Black women. Working-aged Black women have joined the labor force at their highest rate in two decades, helping power America’s economic engine. Your wages have gone up with it, increasing by six percent from the end of 2019 to the end of 2023, more than double the rate for all women. Wealth for the typical Black family increased by 60 percent from 2019 to 2022, thanks in part to more Black women starting companies. The number of Black women-owned businesses grew by 32 percent from 2019 to 2021.
To make sure this equitable recovery spurs sustained equitable growth, we know we need to make sure wages continue to increase and one way to do that is by helping these new businesses grow. At the Four Way Soul Food Restaurant in Memphis, I met with a group of Black women who are leading small businesses to hear from them what the Biden-Harris Administration can do to support them. I heard a clear answer: help them get access to capital and customers.
The President and Vice President have taken steps to make sure that Black businesses have access to unprecedented amounts of capital and are also taking steps to make sure these businesses have access to customers. Since her time in the Senate, the Vice President has been a leading advocate for investing more
capital into the Black community. The Emergency Capital Investment Program (ECIP) has now injected $1.4 billion in Black-owned and majority Black-shareholder financial institutions, which provide financial resources and assistance to people and businesses in our communities. This capital puts these banks in a position to potentially lend an additional $80 billion over the next
decade into the Black community.
We’re also making sure these companies have access to customers. The President has pledged to increase the share of federal contracts going to small, disadvantaged businesses by 50 percent by 2025.
Since 2020, the number of Department of Treasury contracts awarded to Black-owned businesses has grown by 60 percent. In 2022, Treasury awarded over $188 million in government contract to Black-owned businesses. We’re also calling on large companies throughout America to pledge that 15 percent of their procurement dollars will being spent in communities of color.
To build on the economic progress we’ve made, President Biden has proposed a federal budget that will continue to invest in families and businesses, while cutting costs, like housing, that weight most heavily on families. The President’s budget calls for reinstating the Advance Child Tax Credit, which increased the credit to up to $300 a month per child and cut poverty for Black
children in half in 2021. The President’s budget also puts forth policies that would create or maintain 2 million affordable housing units. The budget also includes nearly $400 million to implement the White House Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis to improve the care that women receive when giving birth.
In contrast, proposals we’ve seen from Congressional Republicans would reverse our progress on these issues. Instead of supporting families and small businesses, they offer tax cuts for big corporations and the wealthiest Americans—made possible by massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. They would also repeal programs we implemented to benefit working families, like the $35 cap on insulin, rental
assistance, and down payment support for first-time home buyers.
Despite these efforts, the Biden-Harris Administration will continue to recognize the importance of centering equity in our policies. A commitment to equity doesn’t just pay dividends for the communities we target, but it’s the right way to grow the economy for all Americans and earns us the highest economic growth among our peer countries.
When we invest in those that have been left behind and left out—from rural communities to urban centers—we harness untapped potential in our economy. Now is the time to build on this momentum and create an economy that works for every family in every community.