Equitable Work and Wages
We believe that economic justice begins with fair compensation for all women, and we build evidence to support equal pay policies, livable wages, unions and labor rights, and better job quality for women and their families.

Maternity Leave in the United States: Paid Parental Leave is Still Not Standard, Even Among the Best U.S. Employers
Nearly one-quarter (24 percent) of the best employers for working mothers provide four or fewer weeks of paid maternity leave, and half (52 percent) provide six weeks or less, according to an Institute for Women’s Policy Research analysis of data provided by Working Mother Media, Inc., publisher of Working Mother magazine.
Report to the Maryland Equal Pay Commission
The Institute for Women’s Policy Research constructed a dataset from the 2002 through 2004 American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Files (ACS) for people residing in the state of Maryland.
Still a Man’s Labor Market: The Long-Term Earnings Gap
Although the wage gap, measured by conventional methods, has narrowed in the last several decades, with women who work full-time full-year now earning 77 percent of what men earn (compared with 59 cents on the male dollar 40 years ago), its sweeping effects are largely unacknowledged because its measurement is limited to a single year and restricted to only a portion of the workforce. When accumulated over many years for all men and women workers, the losses to women and their families due to the wage gap are large and can be devastating.
Family Leave for Low-Income Working Women: Providing Paid Leave through Temporary Disability Insurance, The New Jersey Case
DOWNLOAD REPORT The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) provided for unpaid time off from work to care for sick relatives or a newborn or adopted child, guaranteeing leave-takers’ jobs when they returned to work. Low-wage workers and single parents, however, [...]




