FAFSA Delays-Navigating the Thorny Landscape of College Unaffordability
For many low-income college students, the prevailing Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) delays are causing added panic to our ever-growing educational crisis of soaring college costs. IWPR's Policy Team weighs in.
FAFSA Delays-Navigating the Thorny Landscape of College Unaffordability
For many low-income college students, the prevailing Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) delays are causing added panic to our ever-growing educational crisis of soaring college costs. IWPR's Policy Team weighs in.
In the United States, a whopping 43 percent of children have a parent who works “nontraditional hours,” or during the early mornings, nights, or weekends. And yet just 8 percent of child care centers offer care before 7am or after 6pm. While families of all types require care during nontraditional hours, Black and Latinx workers and low-income workers are disproportionately more likely to work during nontraditional hours.
This month, DC’s Paid Family Leave Program was approved to expand in a powerful way, thanks to a law that Councilmember Elissa Silverman successfully entered into the 2022 Budget. The expansion, which will go into effect beginning July 1, 2022, will increase paid leave for private sector workers from 8 to 12 weeks for parental leave, and from 6 to 12 weeks for family caregiving leave and medical leave. Employers will also see a reduced payroll tax rate after the policy’s reevaluation by the City’s Chief Financial Officer.
Equal Pay Day, March 15th, is a day of observance of the persistent gender wage gap in the United States. It marks how far into the new year that women must work to earn what men made in the previous year. Women working full-time earn 83.1 percent of men’s median weekly earnings. But this figure only tells part of the story because it only includes full-time workers. Women are more likely than men to work part-time due to family responsibilities, [...]
On March 4 and 5, 2022, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research will host a conference on “The U.S. Care Infrastructure: From Promise to Reality” with the American University Program on Gender Analysis in Economics and the Carework Network. With the fate of the Build Back Better agenda uncertain, and the U.S. care infrastructure in imminent need of overhaul, expert panelists will discuss what is necessary to ensure a comprehensive and equitable care infrastructure both for people who do care [...]
After treading water through two years of pandemic-related student loan forbearance, people with student debt are due to resume payments on May 1, 2022, a shift that will leave many to drown. Student debt is a crisis in the United States, and one that disproportionately impacts women and people of color. Achieving economic mobility—or even just stability—often requires a postsecondary credential. While some unique career paths, like construction trades, offer apprenticeship as a pathway to good jobs, the vast majority [...]
Over four decades after the passage of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, many pregnant workers still experience discrimination and struggle to get reasonable accommodations that would allow them to maintain employment during their pregnancies. New research from IWPR highlights how a lack of pregnancy accommodations harms employers, the economy, and workers’ economic security. IWPR’s survey of tradeswomen shows how a lack of pregnancy accommodations is a factor that pushes workers out of construction jobs with family-sustaining wages and benefits. [...]
