When Women Fall Behind on Wages, Businesses Feel It Too

Turnover in frontline industries is nothing new, but some sectors like leisure and hospitality and retail trade experience more churn than others. Dayforce's Earning Enough report, powered by our living wage data, shows that women of color, who make up a large share of these industries, are also the least likely to earn a family-sustaining wage. For employers, a workforce that is both underpaid and cycling out carries real risk, and understanding who is falling behind and why is the first step toward addressing that exposure

Fewer women are earning a family-sustaining wage

Dayforce’s recent Earning Enough report found that in 2025, only 43.7% of women earned a family-sustaining wage, or enough to cover basic needs for a family of two full-time working adults and two children. That share was down 5.3 percentage points from 2021, and 15 percentage points lower than for men (58.7% in 2025).

However, the picture shifts considerably when race and ethnicity are taken into account. While family-sustaining wage attainment fell across the board, Black and Latina women experienced the most severe declines—down 7 and 6.3 percentage points respectively—compared to 5.5 percentage points for white women. As of 2025, more than half of Asian (52.5%) and white women (51.6%) earned a family-sustaining wage, while fewer than a third of Black (29.4%) and Latina women (26.4%) did.

Pay type is a key reason why Black and Latina women have seen a greater decline than their counterparts. Salaried workers are more likely to earn family-sustaining wages than hourly workers, even when working full-time, and the likelihood of earning a living wage fell fastest for hourly workers. The groups most concentrated in hourly work are the same groups least likely to earn a family-sustaining wage. On average, 64.7% of Latina women were employed in hourly roles, followed by 59.7% of Black women, compared to 46% of white and 38.5% of Asian women.

Where women work matters

Overrepresentation in low-wage industries is another reason this pattern persists among Black and Latina women. One in five Latina women worked in the leisure and hospitality and retail trade industries in 2025—two sectors with historically low wages—and over one in three Black women were employed in healthcare and social assistance. In some of these industries, like healthcare, low wages are compounded by limited career pathways, leaving workers with fewer opportunities to reach a family-sustaining wage. 

White and Asian women, by contrast, were concentrated in higher-wage industries like professional and business services and financial activities. Family-sustaining wage attainment fell for them too, a reminder that no industry perfectly kept up with cost of living increases.

The tactical implications for employers

Low pay and limited mobility increase the likelihood of worker turnover, and workers in the leisure and hospitality and retail trade industries—where Black and Latina women are disproportionately concentrated—are no exception. As of March 2026, workers in leisure and hospitality were 1.8 times more likely to quit their job than private sector workers overall, while retail workers were 1.4 times more likely. Gallup estimates replacing a frontline worker costs around 40% of their annual salary in direct costs alone, and even more when lost productivity and team disruptions are factored in. These workforce costs add up quickly when employers cycle through a large share of their workforce every year.

What is often framed as a structural pay equity issue carries real tactical implications for frontline employers. The industries where Black and Latina women are disproportionately employed—retail, leisure and hospitality, and health care support—are the same ones with the highest quit rates, and the cost of replacing those workers quickly adds up. When a workforce is constantly cycling out, employers are continually spending their personnel budgets to find, hire, and train replacements, a cycle that drains resources without addressing why workers are leaving in the first place.

What employers can do

While the industries and occupations where Black and Latina women are concentrated have been locked into low wages for a long time, employers have options to support workers and reduce their workforce risks. Research from SHRM identifies compensation, a lack of career development, and workplace flexibility as the top three drivers of frontline turnover, the same pressures that hit Black and Latina women in these industries hardest:

Compensation is the foundation. Wages that don't keep pace with the cost of living push workers out the door, and applying the same annual adjustment logic across all roles means hourly workers fall further behind every year. Tracking compensation against a living wage standard with occupation- and location-specific benchmarks gives employers a clearer picture of where gaps are growing before they show up in turnover numbers. 

Career development matters for long-term retention, especially in lower-wage industries. Building clear pathways through training, certification support, and internal mobility investments keeps workers engaged and reduces the long-term cost of losing experienced employees to better opportunities elsewhere.

Workplace flexibility and total rewards go the extra mile. Cash compensation alone makes a big difference, but the benefits that enable women to stay in the workforce—reliable scheduling, caregiving support, and flexible arrangements—are also key levers in closing living wage gaps. The long-term gains for employers are in total rewards strategies that center the specific pressures women in these roles are facing.

By addressing these pressures, employers can bring stability into their workforces and lower their business risks.

Explore our data or connect with our team to see how occupation- and location-specific compensation benchmarks can support your workforce planning.

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Acknowledgements: The earnings data referenced in this analysis comes from Dayforce's Earning Enough: Living Wage Access in America report. We are grateful to Jason Rahlan, Marko Miholjcic, and Brittany Schmaling of Dayforce for their partnership and providing custom data cuts to support this analysis.