How to change StatusBar text color not background

I want to change the statusbar text color not just the background. When I use statusBar.backgroundColorByHexString("#f7f7f7"); the status bar background is changed successfully however the font is soo light that I can barely see it, how do I control the exact font color of the status bar text in Ionic 2 or 3?

There are numerous questions on this but the answers say you should just use the statusBar.backgroundColorByHexString();. However they dont solve the issue of changing just the text color not the background… any ideas?