Although there was some good news in the Census report on poverty that was released this week, there are still areas of concern for many women. Women as a group saw a decrease in poverty between 2014 and 2015 (from 14.7 percent to 13.4 percent), but women with disabilities saw almost no improvement in their poverty rate (31.9 percent to 31.6 percent). The poverty gap between women and men with disabilities was also very large; women with disabilities were 25 percent more likely to live in poverty than men with disabilities. And women with disabilities were more than three times more likely to be in poverty than men without disabilities.

Disability can both exacerbate poverty and make it more difficult for individuals to escape poverty. Here are some of the issues that women with disabilities face, which make poverty difficult to escape. Although many of these are common to all persons with disabilities, women with disabilities are frequently impacted by both their gender and their disability, resulting in even greater poverty.

Barriers to employment

Women with disabilities make up only 1.5 percent of the workforce, despite being 4 percent of the overall population. Women with disabilities face both stereotypes about people with disabilities in the workplace and women in the workplace. Both women and persons with disabilities are generally viewed as less capable in the workplace, making them less likely to be hired or promoted. There are also many barriers beyond attitudes and stereotypes, including work spaces that are not physically accessible and policies that are unfriendly to persons with disabilities. Without reliable employment in accessible spaces, women with disabilities are forced to rely on government support, keeping them impoverished.

High rates of abuse and violence

Women with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to interpersonal violence and exploitation, and experience violence at higher rates than women without disabilities. Resources intended to help victims of interpersonal violence may be less accessible to women with disabilities, or they may not be aware that these resources exist. Doctors and other care professionals may be less likely to recognize abuse common among women with disabilities, such as withholding needed care, stealing money, or verbal abuse based on the victim’s disability. All of these make women with disabilities more vulnerable to interpersonal violence, which can result in poverty for women.

Lack of reliable and efficient transportation

Persons with disabilities often have difficulty accessing reliable and efficient transportation. Although communities may provide specialized transportation, these options often take a great deal of time and planning in order to use them. Without reliable transportation, it is more difficult to hold a job, to attend medical appointments, and to run errands that are necessary to care for oneself. [link to ] To make matters worse, women with disabilities are frequently sexually assaulted by transportation workers, making transportation more fraught for women with disabilities. All of these can exacerbate poverty for women with disabilities.

Greater medical expenses

Persons with disabilities often have higher medical expenses than other members of the population. Medical expenses are one of the leading causes of poverty in the United States. Women with disabilities have difficulty escaping poverty, due to overwhelming medical bills.

Lack of appropriate, quality education

Despite the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), many persons with disabilities do not receive appropriate education. Their educational opportunities are often limited by others’ perceptions of their abilities, rather than their actual abilities. This is especially true for persons with intellectual disabilities. Children with disabilities are also more likely to be disciplined by the school and more likely to be involved with the juvenile justice system. Girls with disabilities rarely receive STEM education, due to stereotypes about girls and people with disabilities, which prevents them from accessing higher paying jobs later in life. Without education to prepare them for the workplace, girls with disabilities are less likely to obtain secure jobs that pay well enough to lift them out of poverty.

Poverty among women with disabilities is concerning, and requires programs focused specifically on alleviating poverty among women with disabilities, rather than just persons with disabilities or women. There are unique issues that women with disabilities face which must be addressed. The fact that the economy improved and poverty rates decreased for women as a whole, yet remained the same for women with disabilities, tells us there’s a long road ahead to address the needs of this specific population.

The post Women with Disabilities Are Still Struggling to Escape Poverty appeared first on NWLC.

When he pushed for passage of a ban on federal funding for abortion that would later bear his name, the late Rep. Henry Hyde was not shy about his ambition to restrict all women’s ability to access legal abortion services; Hyde remarked: “I certainly would like to prevent, if I could legally, anybody having an abortion, a rich woman, a middle-class woman, or a poor woman.  Unfortunately, the only vehicle available is the . . . Medicaid bill.”

The passage of what became known as the Hyde Amendment signaled the launch of a systematic anti-choice campaign to chip away at the legal abortion secured in Roe v. Wade by restricting access for women who rely on federally-funded programs for their reproductive health needs, particularly low-income women.

For low-income women who are impacted by Hyde’s ban on federally-funded abortion services in the Medicaid program (and who do not live in states that use local funds for abortion)—the cost of abortion makes the right essentially unattainable.  An abortion procedure can range up to around $1,500, which is beyond the means of many low-income women who are struggling to make ends meet in a workforce where wage inequality and gender discrimination leaves them too often trapped in poverty.

In fact, the wage gap leaves women paid considerably less than men—typically, 80 cents to every dollar that men are paid in fact. For women of color, the wage gap is even larger—with African-American women typically paid only 63 cents for every dollar paid to white men. Women are also overwhelmingly represented in minimum wage work—making up two-thirds of the minimum wage workforce.  In 2015, women’s poverty rates were higher than men’s, with one in eight women living in poverty.  So, the high cost of abortion means trying to make the tough decision between paying rent or paying for an abortion and the Hyde Amendment makes this decision even more difficult for low-income women and their families.

Because poverty rates are higher among women of color, it is women of color who disproportionately encounter cost obstacles to obtaining abortions.  Therefore, the Hyde Amendment works exactly as anti-choice proponents intended—by undermining the fundamental purpose of reproductive rights—and leaves only those with financial privilege the ability to privately exercise a right that has been publicly demonized.

Limiting lower-income women’s access to abortion and other reproductive health services negatively impacts their economic security, and that of their families.  For example, the decision of whether and when to have a child impacts a woman’s financial well-being, job security, workforce participation, and educational attainment.  Undermining women’s access to health care has even extended beyond abortion to attempt to block access to other critical reproductive health services, including family planning services under the Title X program.  This undermines the ability of women to make informed decisions for themselves and their families.

The end of this month marks the 40th year that the Hyde amendment has been in place.  It’s time to end the Hyde Amendment and ensure that more women are able to meaningfully access their legal right to abortion.  We’re excited to work with leading advocates like All Above All, which is spearheading the movement to end Hyde, to ensure that all women, regardless of income, are able to access the reproductive health services they need and secure employment, educational, and economic well-being that follows.

The post How Attacks on Women’s Health Makes Us All Losers in the War on Poverty appeared first on NWLC.

This morning the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the most recent employment numbers for September, which got us like:

Today’s jobs report is pretty much unchanged from last month’s —the overall unemployment rate for September remained low at about 5.0 percent, and the unemployment rate for all women ages 20 years and up was below the overall rate at 4.4 percent.

Here were our reactions to some of the other numbers.

When we saw that the economy added only 156,000 non-farm sector jobs, the smallest gains since April, and that only about a third of these gains were made by women:

Gains for women were mostly in the professional and business services sector which include good-paying managerial work but also include administrative assisting and temporary office work. Women also make up over half of the public sector workforce (57.5 percent), which lost 11,000 jobs in September.

When we found that women, especially single women, are more likely to hold down multiple jobs:

Many of the low-wage jobs held by women are in the retail, and leisure and hospitality industries. This includes tipped workers who under federal law are only entitled to a minimum cash wage of $2.13 an hour—a wage that has been frozen for a quarter of century.

When we realized that similarly unchanged from last month are disparities in the unemployment rate for certain groups of women:

• Black women (7.0 percent) had almost double the rate of unemployment of white women (3.8 percent) in September.
• Hispanic women (6.4 percent) also had greater unemployment rates than white women.
• Single moms (6.4 percent) were more than twice as likely to be unemployed than married women and men (3.0 percent).
• Women with disabilities (10.8 percent) were more than twice as likely to be unemployed in September as women without disabilities (4.7 percent).

The post Today’s Jobs Report Shows Women #WorkWorkWorkWorkWork appeared first on NWLC.

Do an image search of the word “millennials” and what comes up might leave you with the impression that this generation spends most of its time taking selfies and eating pizza – sometimes taking selfies while eating pizza – carrying no less than one smart phone and one tablet (or two) at all times, smiling their way through life in packs of three or more. Despite navigating adulthood during the worst economic recession since the Great Depression and contending with the highest rates of unemployment in several generations, the millennials seen in stock photos don’t really seem to be worried about anything, much less money or economic security.

YOLO, #amiright?

But the numbers from this year’s Census provide a very different narrative of the lives of many millennials, including millennial women and especially millennial women of color.

Eighteen percent of millennial women (ages 18-35) live in poverty – double the rate of millennial men.

More than half of these poor women are mothers and they are almost five times more likely to live in single female-headed households than millennial women overall. Data show that millennial women have the highest rates of poverty than any other adult age group. It also shows that millennial women of color are much more likely to live in poverty than white, non-Hispanic millennial men.

This is despite the fact that many millennial women are college educated. About 40 percent of millennial women of color living in poverty went to college, and 16 percent have an Associate’s Degree or higher.  These high poverty rates make rising college tuition and high levels of student debt an especially pressing concern for millennials, adding another barrier for millennials living in poverty to get ahead.

Even though millennial women are more educated than millennial men, the wage gap still persists.

Forty percent of millennial women have college degrees compared with 32 percent of millennial men. Yet, millennial women make only 75 cents for every dollar made by their male counterparts–which means they lose $10,000 in income each year to the wage gap. Assuming that gap remains the same over a 40-year career, millennial women can expect to lose $400,000 over a lifetime.

Similar to other generations, millennial women of color face an even worse wage gap. Black millennial women make 68 cents, American Indian and Alaskan Native millennial women make 63 cents, and Latina millennial women make 60 cents for every dollar made by white, non-Hispanic men in the same age group. Millennial women of color will lose more than half a million dollars over a 40-year career to the wage gap.

For millennial women, access to reproductive health care is important, but many don’t have the access they need. 

The overall uninsurance rate fell to a record low this year. However, about a quarter of millennial women in poverty do not have health insurance coverage, which means they do not have access to covered preventive services, such as birth control or well woman exams.

Millennial women in poverty also have difficulty accessing abortion care. Forty-three percent of millennial women living in poverty rely on Medicaid for health coverage. However, the Hyde amendment denies health coverage of abortion to individuals enrolled in Medicaid, with very narrow exceptions for rape or incest or when the woman’s life is in danger. This essentially prevents these low-income women from accessing abortion.

NWLC is #United4Coverage #BeBoldEndHyde

Millennial women don’t fit into one narrative.  

Stock photos of millennials and popular news articles about this generation paint a picture of a homogeneous group of carefree, parent-loving praise hounds, who ride hover boards at work and don’t understand fax machines or office hierarchies. But the reality for millennial women, especially millennial women of color, is complicated by higher rates of poverty than millennial men, wage inequality despite gains in education attainment, and barriers to essential reproductive health care.

The post Poverty — Just Another Part of Being a Millennial Woman appeared first on NWLC.

This morning the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the most recent employment numbers for October. While the larger employment picture was generally the same as last month, and includes positive job growth, the picture for women is a little more nuanced.

The economy overall gained about 161,000 jobs last month and about half of those were gains made by women.

The unemployment rate for women in general remained about the same at 4.3 percent, and the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Latinas dropped from 6.3 percent in September to 5.5 in October. Still, disparities in the unemployment rate persist for many groups of women.

• Black women (7.1 percent) had almost double the rate of unemployment of white women (3.8 percent) in October. Despite the drop from September, Latinas still had higher unemployment rates (5.5 percent) than white women (3.8 percent) in October.
• In October, single moms (6.1 percent) remained twice as likely to be unemployed than married women and men (3.0 percent).
• Women with disabilities (12.1 percent) were almost three times as likely to be unemployed as women without disabilities (4.4 percent) in October. The unemployment rate for women with disabilities increased from September.

The private sector added 142,000 new jobs last month and more than half of those gains were made by women. However, women are still overwhelmingly represented in the low-wage workforce, and the biggest gains for women in the private sector were in the professional and business services sector which includes temporary help services.

The temporary workforce is overwhelmingly young, black, female, and paid less than those hired directly.   

BLS does not collect specific information on temporary workers so understanding how the temporary workforce is used within the U.S. economy, or the characteristics and experiences of those within the temporary workforce, can be difficult. Still, we know that since the recession use of temporary help services climbed to an all-time high. We know that the temporary workforce makes up about 80 percent of the employment services industry, and we know that those within the employment services industry are more likely to be black, more likely to be young (26-35), and more likely to be women. They are also more likely than people in other industries to hold bachelor’s degrees.

While temporary work offers companies flexibility in hiring (and firing), scheduling, and pay, the flip side for workers is lower pay than in similar direct hire positions, sometimes as much as 78 percent less. Lack of employer-sponsored health insurance benefits or paid sick time leaves temporary workers vulnerable to high health care related debt and working while sick. Most temporary positions lack parental leave and have unpredictable schedules. For women in these positions who are mothers, many of whom are primary breadwinners for their families, meeting work and family obligations can seem nearly impossible.

We need to do more to improve women’s standing in the U.S. economy.

The sustained job growth our economy has seen since the end of the recession has been good for women overall, but there is still more to do. Given that women, and women of color especially, are disproportionately represented in the low-wage workforce, and that women still have to contend with a wage gap that results in lifetime losses ranging from about $400,000 for all women to $1,000,000 for Latinas – there’s still more to do in making sure the kinds of jobs women gain in our economy can support their and their families success.

The post #JobsReport: Gains for Women Are Too Often Temporary – Literally. appeared first on NWLC.

Yesterday, the National Center on Transgender Equality released the results of their 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, which was conducted in the summer of 2015. This is the most comprehensive survey of people who are transgender or gender non-conforming in the United States, with nearly 28,000 respondents from the entire United States, including all fifty states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and U.S. military bases overseas. The USTS was an anonymous, online survey for transgender adults (18 and older) in the United States, available in English and Spanish.

The survey reveals widespread poverty and other difficulties facing the transgender community. People who are transgender are twice as likely to be living in poverty as the general U.S. population, with 29 percent of the respondents indicating that they were living in poverty in 2015, compared to the overall rate of 14 percent in the U.S. For transgender people of color, the statistics were even worse:

• 43 percent of Latinx respondents lived in poverty in 2015
• 41 percent of American Indian respondents lived in poverty in 2015
• 40 percent of multiracial respondents lived in poverty in 2015
• 38 percent of Black respondents lived in poverty in 2015

Over half of transgender people living with HIV were also living in poverty, and nearly half of transgender people with disabilities were also in poverty.

In addition to experiencing poverty at higher rates than the general population, people who are transgender or gender non-conforming had difficulties accessing the income supports and other safety nets that would help them overcome poverty. Nearly one in five respondents reported that they had received negative treatment, including being denied equal treatment or service, verbally harassed, or physically attacked, when they went to a public assistance or government benefits office. Over one in ten transgender people reported negative treatment at a Social Security office. Fourteen percent of transgender people had experienced negative treatment at the Department of Motor Vehicles and 13 percent had experienced negative treatment at a courthouse.

Adding to this difficulty is the fact that these government offices are precisely the places that transgender individuals need to visit to get their identity documents changed to reflect their gender identity. Of the survey respondents who wanted to change their identity documents, only 11 percent indicated that every one of their IDs matched their gender, while 68 percent said that none of their IDs matched their gender identity. Cost was the main barrier to name changes and other ID changes, with 35 percent of the transgender people responding to the survey saying that they hadn’t officially changed their name due to cost and 32 percent saying they hadn’t updated the gender on their IDs because they could not afford to.

If a person who is transgender does not have identification documents matching their gender identity, then any interaction that requires showing identification, such as obtaining employment, voting, or applying for income supports, can be dangerous. One-third of respondents said they faced physical or verbal violence, were denied benefits or service, or asked to leave when they showed an ID that did not match their gender presentation. Presenting identification documents that do not match one’s gender presentation essentially forces a transgender person to come out to people they might not wish to reveal their transgender status to. It can lead to being denied a job or other benefits, and can also lead to violence and verbal abuse.

It is clear from the results of this survey that people who are transgender or gender non-conforming have a much more difficult time achieving economic security than the rest of the population. This is troubling as having sufficient income is critical to the safety and flourishing of transgender people.

The post Transgender People are Facing Incredibly High Rates of Poverty appeared first on NWLC.

Jobs data were released this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and since this is President Obama’s last job’s report, we thought we’d take a look back at how the employment picture looked from his first days in office in 2008 to now.

Unemployment rates have been dropping since about 2011 and are back to where they were when Obama took office.

This might not seem like an achievement but considering we endured the greatest economic recession since the Great Depression just before President Obama’s tenure that led to enormous job losses as he took office this is a BFD.

The unemployment rate has steadily dropped for all groups but was most drastic for black men and women, single moms, and veterans.

We’re back to square one, but some groups of people are still behind.

Despite the gains made in the unemployment rate overall, some groups of women are still experiencing higher unemployment rates, especially Black women (6.8%), women with disabilities (8.3%), and single moms(5.8%). And because the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not track unemployment for trans or gender non-conforming folks, the disparities they face are missing from the data. However, according to most recent estimates from the U.S. Transgender Survey, the unemployment rate for trans-identified people is 15% – almost three times the overall rate.

Much of the job growth for women reflected in the BLS jobs data has been in low-wage service sector industries. For example, women made up 52% of the “leisure and hospitality” sector in December, which saw almost no wage growth over the last eight years, and had a projected average hourly wage of $13.01 in November. Compare this with other sectors in which women are underrepresented, such as construction. The sector had an average hourly wage of $26.24 in November and better average weekly earnings growth over the last 8 years. While more women are working in non-traditional sectors than ever before, from 2015 to 2016 women comprised 65.8% of the job growth in the leisure and hospitality sector, but only 31.4% in the construction sector.

Economists have speculated how much more the incoming administration and Congress can do to truly lower the unemployment rate, given the economy is  already at what many say is “full employment”. However, there is plenty of room for closing gaps – like working to reduce unemployment for women of color, single moms, and trans folk, expanding training and employment opportunities for women in non-traditional sectors, and addressing wage stagnation for low- and middle-income Americans. This would go a long way toward helping working families move past square one.

The post Another Reason to Say #ThanksObama: The Last Jobs Report 2016 appeared first on NWLC.

When the minimum wage falls short, women pay the price. Why? Because women represent nearly two-thirds of minimum wage workers across the country, and more than three-quarters of minimum wage workers in some states. Today, the federal minimum wage is just $7.25 per hour, and full-time earnings of $14,500 a year leave a family of three thousands of dollars below the federal poverty line. Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia currently have minimum wages above the federal level, but in almost every state, the minimum wage leaves a full-time worker with two children near or below the poverty level.

Click on a state below to see its statewide minimum wage and tipped minimum wage, plus the share of minimum wage workers who are women.

Download the aggregated nationwide data.

The post Women and the Minimum Wage, State by State appeared first on NWLC.

Jobs data for January were released this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)—the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.8%, the economy added 227,000 jobs, including 54,000 to women, and wages ticked slightly up by 3 cents. While little changed from last month, or the month prior, these numbers mean more than just their face value. The economic data released as part of the Current Employment Situation (CES) survey are like a finger on the pulse of our economy, especially as it relates to the day-to-day lives of all Americans. These data are important to our overall understanding of how different groups of people are faring in the U.S. economy and are our main tool for resisting alternative facts.

The BLS has collected and published monthly jobs data since 1915—over 100 years. The CES is a survey of about 146,000 businesses and government agencies representing about 623,000 worksites across the U.S. As a candidate, the President called these jobs numbers a “hoax”, claiming that the unemployment rate is far higher than is reflected in the data. What he missed is that these numbers reflect more than just unemployment. They tell us how much people are getting paid for their work, how many hours they are working, who is looking for work and who isn’t maybe because they’ve retired, chosen to stay home to care for children or family, or go to school. They tell us what industries are growing and who is employed in those jobs.

These data are important for employers making hiring decisions, employees negotiating better pay, and policy makers making decisions about our economy. The jobs numbers are a sort of economic surveillance that lets us track trends over time and provides an economic picture of different Americans, including women, immigrants, and veterans.

We’ve used the monthly jobs data to look at how women were impacted by the Great Recession, how they’ve fared throughout the recovery, and to identify gaps, particularly for women of color, women with disabilities, and single moms. Data from January show that while the overall unemployment rate remained relatively unchanged, for women it ticked up slightly. We also found that unemployment for Black women (6.7%) and Latinas (6.3%) remains much higher than for white men (4%), that while women make up half of all workers, they only gained 24% of the 227,000 jobs added to the economy last month, and that single moms are twice as likely to be unemployed than married men.

In a world of alternative facts, the monthly jobs data represent facts that matter, especially in making sure our economy works for everyone.

The post Jobs Data Prove That Facts Still Matter. appeared first on NWLC.

Jobs data were released this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The economy added 235,000 jobs in February, and about 6 in 10 of those went to women. The unemployment rate for women ticked down slightly from 4.8 percent in January to 4.7 percent in February. But this overall number masks the broader economic picture for Black and Latina women.

Racial disparities in the unemployment rate still persist, despite a long stint of economic growth after the 2007 recession.

Black and Latina women continue to experience higher unemployment than white men and women. In February, Black women had nearly double (7.1 percent) the unemployment rate of white men (3.8 percent), and while the unemployment rate for Black women increased from January to February by more than a percentage point, the unemployment rate for white men decreased over the same time period. Latinas were also more likely than white men and women to be unemployed.

When we look at data over time, it’s clear that while unemployment rates have gone down, the unemployment rate gap between Black women and white men and between Latinas and white men has shrunk. However, it is still wider than it was before the recession began and despite a record number of months of job growth, Black women and Latinas continue to lag behind white men when it comes to unemployment and the recovery.

Black women’s and Latinas’ economic recovery progressed at a much slower pace than white men’s.

Data over time show very different experiences throughout the recession and subsequent recovery between Black women and Latinas and white men. White men’s unemployment started trending downward in early 2010 while the unemployment rate for Black women did not begin to decline consistently until  late 2013—nearly four years after the declared “end” of the recession. Latinas did not see a consistent decline in the unemployment rate until early 2012—nearly two years after the recession was declared over. Even at its peak of 9.6 percent in November 2009, white men’s unemployment remained at least 4.3 percentage points below the peak unemployment rate of Black women, which reached 13.8 percent in April 2010, and 2.5 percentage points below Latinas peak unemployment rate of 12.1 percent in November 2010.

Before, during, and after the recession, white men’s unemployment never went higher than Black women’s or Latina’s.

Through the recession and recovery, white men’s unemployment never climbed into double digits, while Black women’s unemployment remained above 10 percent for 60 consecutive months—five years—from February 2009 until January 2014. People of color, but especially Black men and women, bore the brunt of high unemployment during the recession and their recovery has lagged behind that of white men and women. Let’s hope last months’ movement toward a widening gap in the unemployment rate between women of color and white men doesn’t become a long term trend—these women and their families simply can’t afford it.

The post Despite Job Growth, Black and Latina Women Are Still Being Left Behind appeared first on NWLC.

The post NWLC Resources on Poverty, Income, and Health Insurance in 2016 appeared first on NWLC.

The following is a statement by Emily Martin, Vice President for Workplace Justice at the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC):

“Women of America, you didn’t score even a penny raise this year. Instead, it’s the same old story: women are still typically paid 80 cents for every dollar a man makes. If we don’t close that gap, a woman starting her career today stands to be shortchanged hundreds of thousands of dollars over a 40-year career—and some women of color will lose more than a million dollars. That’s why the Trump Administration’s decision to block the initiative to strengthen equal pay enforcement by collecting pay data must be reversed. We literally can’t afford employers and lawmakers who sit on their hands and do nothing to close the gender wage gap.”

###

For immediate release:  September 12, 2017
Contact:  Maria Patrick (mpatrick@nwlc.org)

The National Women’s Law Center is a non-profit organization that has been working since 1972 to advance and protect women’s equality and opportunity.  The Center focuses on major policy areas of importance to women and their families including economic security, education, employment and health, with special attention given to the concerns of low-income women.  For more information on the Center, visit:  www.nwlc.org.

The post Wage Gap Remains Unchanged, Continuing to Shortchange Women and Their Families appeared first on NWLC.

New Census data released this week shows us some good news and bad news.

First, let’s celebrate the good news. The overall US poverty rate fell 0.8 percentage points from 2015 to 12.7 percent in 2016, while the median household income increased from $57,200 in 2015 to $59,000 in 2016. This continues the trend of improvements in overall poverty rates and median household income under the Obama administration. 2016 was also the first year the US poverty rate returned to pre-recession poverty levels.

While the overall data is encouraging, the data shows that households headed by women, particularly those headed by Black and Latina women, are still being left behind in the economic recovery since the Great Recession. More than one in three female-headed families lived in poverty in 2016, compared to 17.3 percent of male-headed households and 6.6 percent of married-couple families. Poverty rates were higher for Black women who head families (38.8 percent) and Latinas who head families (38.8 percent). In addition, we have seen Black women and Latinas consistently experience higher unemployment than white men.

While the 2016 data gives us much to celebrate, more needs to be done to ensure the economy works for all of us.

The post Black Women and Latina Headed Households Face High Poverty Rates appeared first on NWLC.

More than one in eight women, nearly 16.3 million, lived in poverty in 2016. Poverty rates were particularly high for Black women (21.4 percent), Latinas (18.7 percent) and Native women (22.8 percent). Families headed by single mothers (35.6 percent) were 5.4 times more likely than married couple families to live in poverty. Nearly six in ten poor children (59.5 percent) lived in female-headed families in 2016.

Click on a state below to see how many female-headed families are living in poverty, plus:

• The share of all women living in poverty
• The share of Asian women, Black women, Latinas, Native women, and white, non-Hispanic women living in poverty
• The share of children and of women 65 and older living in poverty
• You can also download the data for every state here, and see more of NWLC’s analyses of the latest data on women and poverty.

Source: National poverty rates calculated by NWLC based on 2017 Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement (http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/). State poverty rates calculated by NWLC based on 2016 American Community Survey (http://www.census.gov/acs/www/). Dashes indicate unavailable data. Female-headed families are families with female householders, no husband present and related children under 18.

Notes: The U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey allowed respondents to self-identity their race and ethnicity. “Black” refers to those who identified themselves to be Black or African American. “Asian” refers to those who identified themselves to be Asian. “Native” refers to those who identified themselves to be American Indian or Alaskan Native. “White, non-Hispanic” refers to those who identified themselves to be white, but not of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin. “Latinas” refers to women of any race who identified themselves to be of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin.

The post Women and Poverty, State by State appeared first on NWLC.

NWLC’s analysis of U.S. Census poverty, income, and health insurance data released on September 12, 2017 found that women’s poverty rates were once again higher than the poverty rates for men last year. It also showed that women working full time, year round continue to be paid just 80 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts.  And it shows the success of the Affordable Care Act: nearly 90 percent of non-elderly women were insured in 2016.

In addition, Census’ report on the Supplemental Poverty Measure reaffirmed the importance of Social Security as an anti-poverty program for women and their families.  Specifically, Social Security lifted more than 26.1 million people out of poverty in 2016 – more than any other program or benefit.  This includes:

• Nearly 17.1 million people 65 and older;
• More than 7.5 million adults 18-64; and
• Almost 1.5 million children.

Other data has shown that women rely more on income from Social Security than men do.    On average, female beneficiaries 65 and older receive 58 percent of their family income from Social Security, compared to 53 percent for male beneficiaries 65 and older.  And for more than one in four female beneficiaries 65 and older (27 percent), Social Security is virtually the only source of income (90 percent or more) – while just over two in ten male beneficiaries (21 percent) rely on Social Security for 90 percent or more of their income.

Despite Social Security, older women remain at greater risk of poverty than older men. The poverty rate for elderly women was 10.6 percent in 2016, a .3 percentage point increase from 2015.  Women made up nearly two-thirds of all poor people 65 and older.

Social Security is a critically important program, especially for women. The most recent Census data reminds us why our focus should be on strengthening Social Security, especially for the most vulnerable.

The post Census Data Reaffirms Critical Anti-Poverty Impact of Social Security appeared first on NWLC.

Last week, the Census Bureau released national and state data on poverty, income, and health insurance in 2016. Our initial analysis shows some positive news: poverty rates declined slightly, median income grew 3.2 percent, and the percentage of those without insurance continues to decline thanks to the Affordable Care Act. But despite that positive news, we are still incredibly troubled by our findings on the wage gap.

The typical woman continues to be paid just 80 cents for every dollar paid to her male counterpart. This 80-cent gap translates into a loss of more than $10,000 every single year, or more than $400,000 over a 40-year career. I don’t know about you, but I bet women and their families can think of a lot of things they’d like to do with that kind of money.

And if the overall wage gap isn’t enough to shock and appall, allow me to show you what women of color make for every dollar white, non-Hispanic men make:

Black women are paid just 63 cents and Native women just 57 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men. While Asian women fare somewhat better, making 87 cents for every dollar made by white, non-Hispanic men, many subgroups of Asian women experience wider wage gaps. As for Latinas like me, like my mother, we’re paid just 54 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.

Although millions of women of color work tirelessly to support their families, they’ll lose hundreds of thousands of dollars, or in some cases, more than a million dollars, to the sexist and racist gender wage gap over the course of their careers. In order to catch up to what white, non-Hispanic men have typically made by age 60, Black, Native, and Latina women would have to work decades longer – into their 80s or even 90s.

I want you to know: I checked these numbers twice. And then I asked someone else to check them twice. There are no typos: women are losing monumental amounts of money because of unequal pay. And because the wage gap has barely budged since 2007, we need to do everything we can to close it, because women of color shouldn’t have to work until the day they die just to be paid equally.

The post You Should Be Ticked Off By the Wage Gap for Some Women of Color appeared first on NWLC.

The U.S. Census Bureau data released in September 2017 shows that many American families are experiencing some real economic gains. Despite this good news, women’s poverty rates continued to be above the poverty rate for men in 2016. More than one in eight women – nearly 16.3 million – and more than one in six children – more than 13.2 million – lived in poverty in 2016. More than half of all children living in poverty lived in families headed by women.

Download the full 2016 snapshot here.

The post National Snapshot: Poverty Among Women & Families, 2016 appeared first on NWLC.

This month at NWLC, we’ve been busy pushing out our new analysis on the Census data that came out last week.  The Census data gives us valuable information about income (including the numbers we use to calculate the wage gap), poverty, and health insurance, but it’s still missing something important – the Census doesn’t collect information on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Not counting LGBTQ people actively hurts LGBTQ people

We’ve been over this before. Failing to collect information about sexual orientation and gender identity has real effects on policy; it means that we have less data to point to when speaking to advocates, policymakers, and the general public about pressing issues like closing the wage gap that bisexual women face – a wage gap that recent studies have indicated is larger than both the wage gap lesbian women and the wage gap straight women experience.

The Census data also helps the government decide how to allocate resources and federal funding. Meghan Maury, from the National LGBTQ Task Force, who served on National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations (a committee that advises the Census), noted in a statement, “If the government doesn’t know how many LGBTQ people live in a community, how can it do its job to ensure we’re getting fair and adequate access to the rights, protections and services we need?”

This year it was different (and worse)

For clarity – there are actually two main surveys we talk about when talking about Census data. The first is the American Community Survey, which is an annual survey that tracks different population demographics–that’s the data we’ve been talking about the past two weeks. The second is the decennial U.S. Census, which will next take place as the 2020 Census. While the Census has collected information about same-sex couples since 1990, it has never collected information on LGBTQ individuals.

This spring, when the proposed survey questions came out for the 2020 Census in March, it seemed briefly like this was going to change. The list of proposed question included questions on sexual orientation and gender identity. Less than a day later, the U.S. Census issued a notice calling the LGBT categories an “error,” and removed them.

Image courtesy of the National LGBTQ Task Force

While the exclusion of LGBTQ people from the Census in past years could have been chalked up to inaction – this year, the exclusion was an active decision. This Administration decided that counting LGBTQ people was a mistake.

A look at what could have been, courtesy of a Freedom of Information Act Request by NPR.

Federal agencies wanted to count people, too. NPR reported that four different federal agencies had requested the questions be included, including the Justice Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Environmental Protection Agency. Despite this, in March, the Census Bureau decided there was “no federal data need” to collect information on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Is anything being done about this nonsense?

This summer, Sen. Baldwin and Rep. Grijalva reintroduced the LGBT Data Inclusion Act, which would require agencies that rely on survey demographic data include information on sexual orientation and gender identity. If Congress passes a bill like this, the Census Bureau wouldn’t have a choice– they’d have to collect information about LGBTQ people.

It’s time for the government to start counting LGBTQ people, and stop playing politics with data collection.

The post Reminder: The Trump Admin Went Out of Their Way to Erase LGBTQ People from the Census appeared first on NWLC.

The post What Happens When Girls Don’t Graduate From High School? appeared first on NWLC.

Thanks to the gains feminism has made over the past few decades, young women are no longer enrolling in college to get their “Mrs.” degree.

Studies show that not only are women getting Bachelor’s degrees, but they are out-graduating men–and have been for some time. For the most part, this holds true for women of color: 41.6 percent of Black women, 67.7 percent of Asian women, and 40.4 percent of Latinas are enrolled in post-secondary education.

The Cost of Higher Education

While society generally praises women’s increased higher education enrollment as a sign of progress, there is more to the story.

Women of color are graduating from college at increasing rates. Yet Latina and Black women are more likely than white and Asian borrowers to accrue crippling student loan debt. A recent report shows that women take on more student loan debt than men. Because of the wealth gap, the wage gap, and women’s overrepresentation in low-wage jobs, women have less disposable income to repay their loans. As a result, they account for more than $800 billion of the outstanding student loan debt, which is nearly two-thirds of the total student loan debt. This research also shows that Black and Latina women face particular difficulty repaying student loans. For example, 57 percent of Black women repaying student loans said they were unable to pay for their essential needs.

To make matters worse, women of color are targeted for recruitment by for-profit colleges, which exploit race, class, and gender inequalities by gearing their advertising toward students who qualify for the most financial aid. Many students at for-profit schools end up dropping out before graduation, walking away with nontransferable credits and no degree to fall back on–and loads of debt.

But there’s a reason why women of color are pursuing higher education in spite of all these challenges. Certainly, these women want to pursue opportunities in higher education but most women need to pursue higher education in order to get a job—at least the kind of job that will allow them to make ends meet and set them up for future success.

Education and Employment Challenges 

This month’s jobs report makes it clear: graduating from college increases employment rates—especially for women and even more so for women of color. Women without a high school diploma were 3.17 times more likely to be unemployed than women with a bachelor’s degree or higher. The difference between the unemployment rate of women without a high school diploma and women with a Bachelor’s degree or more was 5.2 percentage points, while the difference between men without a high school diploma and men with a Bachelor’s degree or more was only 2.8 percentage points. In other words, women have the most to gain–in terms of employment prospects–by graduating from college.

These differences in unemployment rates are even larger for some women of color. Black and Native women without a high school diploma had unemployment rates of 17.2 percent and 16.4 percent respectively. A Bachelor’s degree makes these unemployment rates fall more than 13 points for Black women and more than 8 points for Native women.

Women also faced a higher unemployment rate in September than equally educated men.  Although these differences narrowed with an increase in education, even women with degrees are struggling to close the unemployment gender gap. Men who have a Bachelor’s degree or higher face an unemployment rate of 2.1 percent, compared to women who have an unemployment rate of 2.4 percent. Even when equally educated, women still face more difficulty finding jobs than men.

Long-term Effects

Wealth is one long-term effect of women’s educational attainment that varies by race. You can calculate wealth, or a person’s net worth, by subtracting debts from total assets. While there is a lot of focus on the race and gender wage gaps, race and gender wealth gaps can tell us a lot about what kinds of financial safety nets families have access to, especially during times of emergency.

Recent reports illustrate that there is women of color experience a staggering wealth gap. The average unmarried white man has $28,900 in wealth, while the average unmarried Black female has only $200. What women of color experience is a multiplicative oppression: the wealth gap x the wage gap means the loss of lots of income and wealth over a woman of color’s lifetime.

Historically, one way women have acquired wealth is through marrying men; men typically have higher incomes, assets, savings, and other benefits down the line (including Social Security), and marriage gives women access to this wealth. However, this is less the case today due to high divorce rates, increased rates of single motherhood, and women choosing to marry later in life (or not at all).

When educated women do marry men, they tend to marry someone who has a similar educational status, which means both spouses benefit from the other’s enhanced ability to build wealth. But, this is less true for Black women for a variety of reasons, one of them being that Black women are more likely than Black men to get college degrees. Thus, even this traditional (and inequitable) method of building wealth through marriage to a man is relatively closed off to Black women.

Ultimately, while women are increasingly educated, the impact of that education on employment and financial security varies by race. Even as women of color struggle to close the wage gap they must also pay for higher education despite having little wealth to pull from and despite facing higher unemployment rates. This is exactly why policy solutions for inequities in education and the workplace must remain squarely focused on the experiences of women of color.

The post What Can a Degree Do for You? A Lot Less, if You’re a Woman appeared first on NWLC.