Economic Security, Mobility and Equity (ESME)
Whether paid or unpaid, women’s work is crucial for their families’ economic security and well-being. Greater gender equality in paid and unpaid work will reduce poverty and improve economic growth and prosperity; persistent inequity in employment and family work is costing all of us. Women are held back by the undervaluation of historically female work, workplaces designed as if workers had no family responsibilities, and a broken-down work-family infrastructure.
IWPR’s ESME program highlights the extent of pay inequalities, and the role played by stark occupational segregation in perpetuating unequal pay. We conduct research and analysis on women’s labor force participation and employment trends; workforce development, non-traditional employment, and apprenticeships; the impact of sex discrimination and harassment on women’s career advancement and mobility; the gender pay gap and pay inequity across race and ethnicity; work-family policies and employer practices; the and the impact of automation and technological advances on women workers.
We work with policymakers, employers, advocates, and practitioners to identify promising practices and policy solutions.
Black Women Earn Less Than White Men in Every State, Won’t Reach Pay Equity Until 2144
The COVID-19 pandemic and related recession both highlighted and exacerbated the persistent racial and gendered economic inequalities that Black women face in the labor market. Whether they worked full-time, part-time, year-round, or part-year, Black women were paid substantially less than White men. This brief [...]
Women and Infrastructure Jobs: Policy Options for Congress
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and CHIPS and Science Act authorized the investment of billions of dollars into strengthening the American economy. In the next decade, these investments are projected to create several million new jobs. Careers in [...]
Numbers Matter: Women Working in Construction
Construction careers are attracting an increasing number of women. Yet, even with this growth, tradeswomen are only 4.2 percent of those who work with the tools in construction. In three of the five largest trades, their share of jobs is even smaller, just 3.5 [...]
Maine’s Latest Budget Establishes State’s First Paid Leave Program and Boosts Child Care
This week, Governor Janet Mills signed into law Maine’s latest budget, which invests $25 million in a state paid family and medical leave program. The passage of the budget represents a major victory for workers and advocates, who fought to establish critical protections for workers [...]
Advancing Women in Manufacturing: Perspectives from Women on the Shop Floor
Careers in manufacturing can provide high earnings and good benefits. After years of decline,the manufacturing industry is growing again. Manufacturing employs one in ten workers in the United States but fewer than a third of workers are women,and women are particularly underrepresented in many [...]
Women Earn Less Than Men Whether They Work in the Same or in Different Occupations
In 2022, women earned less than men for full-time weekly work in almost all occupations, including in 19 of the largest 20 occupations for women, and in all of the largest 20 occupations for men. Teaching Assistants (median weekly earnings of $662) is the [...]
