June 2004
Working Women Speak Out!
The AFL-CIO asked working women about their key concerns and priorities, and working women answered with a resounding response: jobs and health benefits! According to the AFL-CIO's 2004 "Ask a Working Woman" survey, finding and keeping a good job with basic benefits was the leading concern, both personally for women and as a matter of public policy.
Women face many challenges in today's economy, including unemployment, unaffordable health insurance and prescription drug coverage, and poor family-friendly policies.
- Many working women have been impacted by joblessness. In the past year alone, 48 percent have been out of work or have had a family member or close friend who was out of work.
- Joblessness has hit women of color even harder - 61 percent of African-American women, 52 percent of Latinas and 52 percent of Asian Pacific American women have been or known someone who has been unemployed in the past year.
- Ninety percent of all women said that good jobs that pay well and provide benefits are hard to find.
- Joblessness is a particularly important issue for women who are primary supporters of their families. According to the survey, 62 percent of working women earn more than half of their families' incomes. Twenty-nine percent earn all or almost all.
The survey also revealed a widespread concern among working women about the rising cost of health care, which was the largest issue for working women across all demographic groups including race, age and region of the country. Their concern is very real as roughly one-third of women surveyed did not have health care insurance and more than one-third were without prescription drug coverage. Many women with health care were concerned that their current benefits would not cover the rising costs leaving their families with large financial burdens.
Not surprisingly, affordable health care tops working women's legislative priorities this year. Working women want laws to make quality health care more affordable. Eighty-one percent ranked this as a very important priority, above other issues, such as laws to strengthen Social Security/pensions, limit CEO compensation, protect overtime pay, strengthen equal pay laws and expand the Family and Medical Leave Act.
The survey was conducted for the AFL-CIO by Lake Snell Perry & Associates and included random telephone surveys of 1,450 working women nationwide over the age of 18 and an online survey of 13,500 working women.
To read the full report, visit the AFL-CIO.
Women Face Record-Breaking Job Loss
Between March 2001 and March 2004, women workers have lost over 300,000 jobs. This period of unprecedented job loss began during the 2001 recession and continued into 2004. Women have never before experienced such slow job recovery in recent times. For example, during the previous four recessions, women's employment increased by an average of 7.3 percent within 36 months after the start of the recession. However, by March 2004, women's employment was down 0.5 percent from the March 2001 level.
The Institute for Women's Policy Research released the information earlier this month and noted that women today are facing tough times when trying to find work. More women are of working-age today than in March 2001. The loss of jobs translates into fewer employed women in comparison to the total female working-age population. The depressed employment outlook also has impacted women's labor force participation, including the number of women looking for employment. IWPR found that women's monthly labor force participation leveled out in 2001 around 60 percent. Since March 2001 and the start of the recession, participation has decreased, reaching 59.2 percent in May 2004.
IWPR estimates that if women's job growth "continued since March 2001 at the average pace of the previous ten years, an additional 3.9 million women would now have a job."
Fight for Your Rights
Women workers benefit from unions. In fact, unionized women are more likely to have health and pension benefits and on average earn 30 percent more than non-unionized women. Take action and fight for your right to form unions and bargain collectively. June 28 through July 4 is "National Workplace Week of Action." Union activists across the country will build support for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would clear many of the obstacles faced when trying to form a union.
For more information about the "National Workplace Week of Action," visit AFSCME's website.
What's the Status of Women in Your State?
Across the country, women face wide disparities in economic status by race, ethnicity, and region, and in comparison to men. A new report, Women's Economic Status in the States: Wide Disparities by Race, Ethnicity and Region, is the latest in a series of Status of Women in the States publications by the Institute for Women's Policy Research. As a whole, women continue to earn less, be less likely to own a business and more likely to live in poverty than men.
Differences in economic status are greater for many women of color. According to IWPR, African-American, Native America and Hispanic women often earn less and are less likely to work in professional and managerial jobs than white or Asian American women.
Women's economic status also varies by region and state. The District of Columbia has the highest average salaries for women in 2002 ($37,800) as well as the highest earnings ratio between women and men (92.4 percent). The worst states for annual earning was Montana and South Dakota where women on average earned only $24,400 in 2002. Women in Wyoming had the lowest earning ratio at 66.3 percent. New Hampshire had the highest percentage of women living above poverty (92.7 percent), while Mississippi had the lowest at 79.8 percent.
The report is a great tool to help you as an advocate for women's rights in your state. To obtain a copy of the report, visit the IWPR website.
No Time to be Sick
Another study by the Institute for Women's Policy Research reveals widespread lack of paid sick leave for America's workers. No Time to be Sick: Why Everyone Suffers When Workers Don't Have Paid Sick Leave found that more than 59 million workers do not have paid sick leave.
Paid sick leave is an important benefit for workers, particularly women workers who remain the primary caregivers of their families. Fifty-five percent of mothers with infants are in the workforce, as are 64 percent of mothers with children under six, and 70 percent of mothers with children between the ages of 6 and 17. In addition, on average, women provide 23 hours per week of family caregiving for adult relatives. Workers often use paid sick leave to care for sick relatives and children; however, by definition, coverage is typically limited to their own health-related absences. Only about 30 percent of workers are permitted to use their coverage to care for others.
Industries and occupations that tend to be highly populated by women are often the same professions lacking paid sick leave. Low-wage workers, accommodation and food service industry workers and part-time workers are predominately women and have little paid sick leave. Women workers in these groups often go without pay or face threats to their employment if they stay home for their health or to care for others.
Public sector and union members are fortunate to have the best coverage. Nearly 90 percent of state and local government workers have paid sick leave coverage in comparison to only 45 percent of private sector workers. Union members are more likely to have coverage than nonunion workers. Sixty-nine percent of union workers are covered compared to only 49 percent of nonunion workers.
Currently, members of Congress are working to expand paid sick leave to all families. The Healthy Families Act, which was recently introduced in the Senate, requires employers with at least 15 employees to provide seven paid sick days per year for full-time employees and a pro-rata number for part-time employees. Leave may be used for the employee's medical needs or to care for family members.
To read IWPR's report, visit the Institute for Women's Policy Research website. For more information about the Healthy Families Act, visit the National Partnership for Women and Families website.
Women’s Rights Department Email List
We are working to build a comprehensive contact email list and would like your help. Please forward this to other AFSCME members that might not have received it and let them know they should contact us via email so we can add them to our database. Write to womensrights@afscme.org and tell us you'd like to be added to the database. Please include your name, local/council/unit number, email address, and mailing address.
WomENews is produced by the Women's Rights Department and written by Karen Swift.