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.
Thirty-Five Million: a Preliminary Report on the Status of Young Women
This report presents highlights, in chart form, of the status of women aged 18-34 from 1970 to the present time, covering demographic, economic and social characteristics.
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Improving Employment Opportunities for Women Workers: An Assessment of the Ten Year Economic and Legal Impact of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978Improving Employment Opportunities for Women Workers: An Assessment of the Ten Year Economic and Legal Impact of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978
Improving Employment Opportunities for Women Workers: An Assessment of the Ten Year Economic and Legal Impact of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978
Issues of rights or equity for working women (and men) promise to continue to be as hotly contested in the 1990s as these issues were in the 1970s and 1980s.
Tax Benefits for Low-Income Families With Children: Two Competing Proposals, Parts I and II
This briefing paper presents a comparison of the impact on family income of two currently proposed bills that increase tax credits for low-income working families with children: S.5 in the U.S. Senate, the Act for Better Child Care, and H.R.3 in the House of Representatives, the Early Childhood Education and Development Act.
The Minimum Wage Increase a Working Woman’s Issue
Equal pay is a fundamental issue affecting working families. While the number of women workers in the labor force has steadily increased, the contribution of women's wages to family income has also grown, with women's earnings now providing a significant portion of total household income.
Unnecessary Losses to African American Workers
When a person temporarily leaves their employment because of the arrival of a child, illness of a family member, or her or his own illness, economic costs arise for three groups: workers, employers, and society.
Raises and Recognition: Secretaries, Clerical Workers and the Union Wage Premium
Though secretarial and clerical occupations were not always female intensive, they are currently the largest women's occupational category in the US.