A new report, released in advance of Super Tuesday, by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), finds that the gender wage gap costs women in the South $155.4 billion per year. Closing the wage gap would reduce relatively high poverty rate for working women in the southern United States by more than half. The Status of Women in the South is the first report to provide a comprehensive portrait of the status of women, particularly the status of women of color, in the southern states, grading each state on six different topic areas related to women’s economic, political, health, and social status.

New analysis by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) finds that four in ten workers in the United States lack access to paid sick days, and among those who do have access, only 55 percent of workers actually used any sick days in the previous year. Inequality in access to paid sick days exists within and across occupations, with supervisors more likely to have paid sick days than non-supervisors. Hispanic, low-wage, and food service and personal care workers are least likely to have access to this important benefit.