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.
Children and Families in the District of Columbia: Child Care Needs
Child care in the nation’s capital, like the nation in general, is essential. the increased labor force participation of mothers, increased poverty rates, and the increasing evidence of positive effects of preschool on poor children, has made understanding the demographics of children and their families very necessary.
Women and the Minimum Wage
Without an increase the minimum wage will continue to fall, further depleting the purchasing power of the more than five million workers who earn at or below $4.25 per hour.
Welfare That Works: The Working Lives of AFDC Recipients
In the latest campaign to move recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) off the welfare rolls through time-limiting benefits and ending entitlements, little attention has been paid to what will work to increase the likelihood that AFDC recipients can find work and earn wages above the barest minimum.
Restructuring Work: How Have Women and Minority Managers Fared?
Have the employment opportunities of women and minorities been negatively impacted as a result of corporate and industrial restructuring?
Temporary Disability Insurance: A Model to Provide Income Security Over the Life Cycle
An IWPR paper presented at the 1995 Annual Meetings of the American Economics Association of the Allied Social Science Associations. Argues for the need to change the traditional social welfare system to allow for demographic changes, family diversity, and women’s need for income replacement across the life cycle.
Pay Equity and the Wage Gap: Success in the States
By 1989, twenty states had implemented programs to raise the wages of workers in female-dominated jobs in their state civil services.
