Social Security benefits are especially important to populations that experience greater economic insecurity as they age — particularly women, people of color, and same-sex couples.

In 2008, the District of Columbia passed the Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act, which guarantees workers the right to earn paid sick days. This law, however, excludes tipped workers in the restaurant industry, and employees aren’t covered until after they have worked for a particular employer for more than one year and 1,000 hours.

Using the parameters of the proposed legislation and publicly available data, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) estimates some of the anticipated costs and benefits to employees and employers that will result from providing earned sick days to newly covered workers.

According to an Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) analysis of the October employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), of the 148,000 total jobs added to nonfarm payrolls in September, women gained 76,000 of those jobs (51 percent) while men gained 72,000 jobs (49 percent).

This report outlines how investing in women’s employment has led to enhanced business performance and productivity for companies in diverse countries and sectors.

This Population Policy Brief focuses on the victimization, costs of abuse and barriers to safety and recovery that older survivors experience.

The persistent gap in male and female poverty has been growing during the economic recovery, with 16.3 percent of females, and 13.6 percent of males living in poverty in 2012.