Equitable Work and Wages

Before the “She-Cession”: A Pre-Pandemic Snapshot Shows More Women in the Workforce than Ever
Before the “She-Cession”: A Pre-Pandemic Snapshot Shows More Women in the Workforce than Ever

Before the “She-Cession”: A Pre-Pandemic Snapshot Shows More Women in the Workforce than Ever

The “she-cession” caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has created economic instability for women across the United States. Yet, before the COVID-19 pandemic, women’s employment and earnings were improving nationwide. It is important to track trends in women’s employment and earnings prior to the pandemic [...]

By Elyse Shaw and Halie Mariano|2025-01-27T19:24:07-05:00June 22, 2021|Equitable Work and Wages|0 Comments

A Slow Climb Back from the “She-Cession”: High Jobs Deficit in Child Care and School Sectors Continues
A Slow Climb Back from the “She-Cession”: High Jobs Deficit in Child Care and School Sectors Continues

A Slow Climb Back from the “She-Cession”: High Jobs Deficit in Child Care and School Sectors Continues

New May jobs data show that despite greater jobs gains, women’s recovery continues to lag behind that of men. Women’s jobs on payroll are still 4.2 million below pre-COVID-19 levels, compared with 3.5 million fewer jobs on payroll for men. Further, high jobs deficits in schools and child care centers point to difficulties for employed mothers and mothers wanting to return to work.

By Ariane Hegewisch|2025-01-27T19:24:07-05:00June 9, 2021|Equitable Work and Wages|0 Comments

Young Women Workers Still Struggling a Decade After the Great Recession: Lessons for the Pandemic Recovery
Young Women Workers Still Struggling a Decade After the Great Recession: Lessons for the Pandemic Recovery

Young Women Workers Still Struggling a Decade After the Great Recession: Lessons for the Pandemic Recovery

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a “she-cession,” with women experiencing a disproportionate share of job losses (Institute for Women’s Policy Research 2021). Young women ages 16 to 24 years old suffered the largest percentage decline in employment compared to young men and prime-age workers, mainly due to their concentration in service sectors and occupations that had been hit the hardest by the pandemic recession (Sun 2021). The outsized effects of the COVID-19 pandemic recession on young women reflect pre-existing inequalities in the labor market. Achieving an equitable economic recovery requires understanding how the U.S. labor market has been transformed in the past decade and beyond—to the detriment of workers.

By Shengwei Sun|2025-01-27T19:24:07-05:00May 25, 2021|Equitable Work and Wages|0 Comments

Narrow the Gender Pay Gap, Reduce Poverty for Families: The Economic Impact of Equal Pay by State
Narrow the Gender Pay Gap, Reduce Poverty for Families: The Economic Impact of Equal Pay by State

Narrow the Gender Pay Gap, Reduce Poverty for Families: The Economic Impact of Equal Pay by State

Equal pay would significantly reduce poverty for working women and their families across the United States. If working women received equal pay with comparable men—men who are of the same age, have the same level of education, work the same number of hours, and have the same urban/rural status—poverty for working women would be reduced by more than 40 percent.

By Elyse Shaw and Halie Mariano|2025-01-27T19:24:07-05:00May 11, 2021|Equitable Work and Wages|0 Comments

Despite Record Job Growth in March 2021, Gender Gap in Economic Recovery Widened
Despite Record Job Growth in March 2021, Gender Gap in Economic Recovery Widened

Despite Record Job Growth in March 2021, Gender Gap in Economic Recovery Widened

New March jobs data show that nearly one million (916,000) new payroll jobs were added, yet only one-third of these went to women (34.4 percent, or 315,000 payroll jobs). This marks an increased widening of the gender gap in recovery for a second month in a row. Women still need 4.6 million more jobs to get back to pre-COVID-19 levels, compared to men who need 3.8 million more jobs.

By Ariane Hegewisch|2025-01-27T19:24:07-05:00April 29, 2021|Equitable Work and Wages|0 Comments

Out of Work, Taking on Care: Young Women Face Mounting Challenges in the “She-Cession”
Out of Work, Taking on Care: Young Women Face Mounting Challenges in the “She-Cession”

Out of Work, Taking on Care: Young Women Face Mounting Challenges in the “She-Cession”

Longstanding inequities in access to quality jobs and affordable care, along with uneven caregiving responsibilities, create unique challenges for young women of color during this prolonged pandemic recession. Young women (aged 16 to 24) were more likely to lose their job than young men and workers of other age groups in the initial months of the pandemic recession, largely due to their concentration in industries and occupations that have been hit the hardest by the economic downturn.

By Shengwei Sun|2025-01-27T19:24:08-05:00April 6, 2021|Equitable Work and Wages|0 Comments

The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation, Race, and Ethnicity 2020
The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation, Race, and Ethnicity 2020

The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation, Race, and Ethnicity 2020

In 2020, women earned less than men in almost all occupations, whether they worked in predominantly male, predominantly female, or more integrated occupations. In the lowest paid of the largest 20 occupations for women, Maids and Housekeepers ($503 per week), women are nine-in-ten workers (and face a wage gap of 10.6 percent); in the highest paid of the largest 20 occupations for men, Chief Executives ($2,402 per week), women are fewer than one-in-three workers (and face a wage gap of 24.4 percent).

By Ariane Hegewisch and Eve Mefferd|2025-01-27T19:24:08-05:00March 21, 2021|Equitable Work and Wages|0 Comments

Here to Stay: Black, Latina, and Afro-Latina Women in Construction Trades Apprenticeships and Employment
Here to Stay: Black, Latina, and Afro-Latina Women in Construction Trades Apprenticeships and Employment

Here to Stay: Black, Latina, and Afro-Latina Women in Construction Trades Apprenticeships and Employment

The skilled construction trades provide opportunities to build careers that are both challenging and fulfilling, pay a family sustaining wage with benefits, and can be accessed through ‘learn as you earn’ apprenticeships. Apprenticeships are particularly common in the unionized sector of the construction industry, where contractors and unions jointly run and fund apprenticeship programs.

By Chandra Childers and Lark Jackson|2025-01-27T19:24:08-05:00March 9, 2021|Equitable Work and Wages|0 Comments

Asian and Pacific Islander Women Earn Less than White Men in All but One State
Asian and Pacific Islander Women Earn Less than White Men in All but One State

Asian and Pacific Islander Women Earn Less than White Men in All but One State

In 2019, the median earnings of Asian American and Pacific Islander women for a year of full-time work were just 84.6 percent of White non-Hispanic men’s, and just 73.3 percent of the median annual earnings of Asian American and Pacific Islander men.2 While Asian American and Pacific Islander women had the highest median annual earnings for full-time year-round women of the largest racial and ethnic groups in the United States, $55,0003 compared to $47,299 for all women workers,4 this hides large differences in the labor market experiences for different groups of women.

By Ariane Hegewisch and Halie Mariano|2025-01-27T19:24:08-05:00March 8, 2021|Equitable Work and Wages|0 Comments

The Weekly Gender Wage Gap by Race and Ethnicity: 2020
The Weekly Gender Wage Gap by Race and Ethnicity: 2020

The Weekly Gender Wage Gap by Race and Ethnicity: 2020

As lowest paid women lost most jobs, the gender wage gap for full-time workers shrank for all women and men, and by race & ethnicity. The gender wage gap in weekly earnings for full-time workers in the United States narrowed between 2019 and 2020, from 19.5 percent in 2019 (a gender earnings ratio of 81.5%) to 18.7 percent in 2020 (a gender earnings ratio of 82.3%)

By Ariane Hegewisch|2025-01-27T19:24:09-05:00March 4, 2021|Equitable Work and Wages|0 Comments

Before the “She-Cession”: A Pre-Pandemic Snapshot Shows More Women in the Workforce than Ever

A Slow Climb Back from the “She-Cession”: High Jobs Deficit in Child Care and School Sectors Continues

Young Women Workers Still Struggling a Decade After the Great Recession: Lessons for the Pandemic Recovery

Narrow the Gender Pay Gap, Reduce Poverty for Families: The Economic Impact of Equal Pay by State

Despite Record Job Growth in March 2021, Gender Gap in Economic Recovery Widened

Out of Work, Taking on Care: Young Women Face Mounting Challenges in the “She-Cession”

The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation, Race, and Ethnicity 2020

Here to Stay: Black, Latina, and Afro-Latina Women in Construction Trades Apprenticeships and Employment

Asian and Pacific Islander Women Earn Less than White Men in All but One State

The Weekly Gender Wage Gap by Race and Ethnicity: 2020

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