The gender wage ratio improved slightly from 77.6 percent in 2013 to 78.6 percent in 2014, which the Census Bureau reported was not statistically significant. With this insignificant improvement in the gender wage ratio, an IWPR analysis finds that, if current trends are projected forward, women will not receive equal pay until 2059. This date is one year further out from last year, indicating that the slow progress in closing the gender wage gap over the last decade may have long-term effects on women’s economic gains.

A new briefing paper released by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) finds that women represented by a union in the United States earn an average of $212 more per week than women in nonunion jobs. In addition, union women earn more in every state, with the size of the union wage advantage varying across states: union women in Wyoming earn $349 per week more than their nonunion counterparts in the state, while union women in the District of Columbia earn $48 more per week than D.C.’s nonunion women.

In advance of the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) released a report presenting a comprehensive analysis of the interview responses of 184 low-income black women who were living in “The Big Four”—four large housing projects within the city of New Orleans, known as “the Bricks”—and who were displaced by the twin disasters of the hurricane and the flooding.

New report examines how women, mothers, women of color, and women in different occupations will be affected when the proposed rule goes into effect