Womenstake

Dropout Prevention and Pay Equity: Steps to Reducing Poverty Among Women

by Kolbe Franklin, Program Assistant
National Women’s Law Center

As I suspect has become clear from numerous other blogs in this series, poverty is unequivocally a women’s issue. In 2005, over 14 percent of women lived in poverty. Among single mothers, this number rose to over 31 percent. This is clearly unacceptable, both for the women and families immediately affected and for society as a whole. 

If we are going to address the root causes of women’s poverty, we have to take a holistic approach.  For many women and girls, failing to graduate from high school is the first indicator of a future life of poverty. Too many girls, meanwhile, are steered away from training for traditionally male fields that can lead to higher-paying jobs. And the wage gap among male and female workers often leaves women with few options for escaping economic instability. In order to address the alarming poverty rates, therefore, we must encourage girls to stay in school, take courses that will enable them to gain economic self-sufficiency, and guarantee them equal pay once they enter the workforce.

Here are some startling – and discouraging – statistics:

• Nearly 1 in 4 girls does not graduate from high school in the standard, four-year time period.  The numbers are even worse for girls of color.  Thirty-seven percent of Hispanic females, 40 percent of Black females, and 50 percent of Native American/Alaskan Native females failed to graduate in four years in 2004.

• Female dropouts earn on average 7 percent below the Federal Poverty Line for a family of three ($15,520 vs. $16,600) while women with high school diplomas earn on average 32 percent above that level ($21, 936 vs. $16,600).

• Across the country, girls make up 87 percent of students in traditionally female fields such as cosmetology and childcare and only 15 percent of those in traditionally male fields such as auto mechanics and construction. But girls who enter traditionally female occupations can generally expect to earn half—or less—of what they would earn in a traditionally male field.

• Women still earn on average 78 cents for every dollar paid to men. If women in the workforce earned the same amounts as men who work the same number of hours, have the same education, age, and union status and live in the same region of the country, their annual family income would rise by about $4,000 and their poverty rates would be cut by half or more.

UK Poverty Efforts Set a Good Example

by Reggie Oldak, Senior Counsel
National Women's Law Center

The Center for American Progress has a task force on poverty with the goal of cutting poverty in half in 10 years.  In the United Kingdom, they’re way ahead of us.

Tackling child poverty (and, by extension, poverty among single mothers) is high on the agenda in the UK. Almost ten years ago, the UK committed to ending child poverty by 2020. They encourage work for those who can work, and provide security for those who can’t. The national goal focused the attention of people in and out of government, and the goal itself is credited for the UK’s dramatic progress. Between 1998 and 2005, the number of children in poverty fell by 600,000 in the UK – using the UK’s measure of relative poverty. By US measures, child poverty in the UK fell even more. 

The UK directly invests in financial support for families, beginning with statutory maternity pay for nine months. Yes, they pay mothers after the birth of a child, with no limit to the number of children.  Then, they make work possible with a significant investment in childcare – including a commitment to both a Children’s Centre (child care) in every community and wrap around day care in every school by 2010 – and they make work pay – with a national minimum wage that is higher than ours and tax credits for workers. To top it all off, they have instituted improved work/life balance measures, including the right to request flexible work schedules for parents with children under 6. 

How Do You Calculate a Family’s Basic Needs?

by Kyrie Bannar, Outreach Intern
National Women’s Law Center

Experts agree that you can’t support a family on a poverty level income. So what does it take to meet a family’s basic needs?  A new interactive tool from the National Center for Children in Poverty, the Basic Needs Budget Calculator, estimates a family’s basic expenses based on their location, family structure, employment status, and children’s ages. It then puts together a budget for food, rent, and child care, and gives the yearly income/hourly wage to meet those needs. So far, the calculator has been set up for 70 localities in 11 states.

The calculator can help connect the dots between child care and poverty in the United States. For more information on how states are doing in meeting families’ child care needs, check out NWLC’s report, State Child Care Assistance Policies 2008: Too Little Progress for Children and Families. The report reveals that states continue to fall short of providing low-income parents the support they need to obtain good-quality child care. As Karen Schulman and Helen Blank blogged about last week, high-quality child care can make a real difference in the lives of low-income children.

Women, Poverty, and Reproductive Justice

by Candace Webb, Outreach Manager
National Women’s Law Center

I wanted to use this opportunity on Blog Action Day 2008 to tell you why women's reproductive justice issues matter, and how they're connected to women's economic security.

For more, watch my video blog post above.

A Tax Break for Poor Families, For a Change

by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security
National Women’s Law Center

This blog has been tracking the progress of a proposal to expand the refundable Child Tax Credit throughout the year. We’re pleased to report that it made it into law, as a tiny provision of the huge “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act” (aka the “financial bailout”). And, it’s in effect for 2008. 

The change could benefit 13 million children in low-income families – but they need to file a tax return to claim it and other tax benefits, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit.  You can help spread the word. NWLC is offering two free webinars, Tax Credits: What Working Families Need to Know, Friday, Oct. 17, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern (1 hour) and Tax Credits Outreach: Tips and Tools for Service Providers and Advocates, Thursday, Oct. 23, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern (1 hour). 

Unfortunately, the change in the Child Tax Credit is only in effect for 2008. Advocates will have to fight again next year to extend it – and for more tax policies that help those at the lower end of the income scale, rather than those at the very top.

The Shameful Link between Health and Wealth

by Brigette Courtot, Policy Analyst
and Golda Philip, Health Fellow
National Women's Law Center

Today, a woman earns 77 cents for every dollar that a man earns. This wage gap is distressing in and of itself, but it becomes even more significant when you consider that a woman’s relative poverty could be a matter of life or death. Simply put, those with the fewest resources in this country are also the least likely to have access to high-quality health care. Not surprisingly, lower-income women experience poorer health outcomes, many of which could be prevented through access to high-quality care.

Insurance coverage is a major factor in the health inequities that poor families experience.  The relationship between access to health care and access to health insurance is well-documented, and women who are poor or near-poor are at greatest risk for being uninsured. While public health insurance programs play a critical role in extending coverage to many low-income women and their families (state Medicaid programs, for instance particular, cover more than 20 million women), there are millions more who don’t qualify for public health insurance. Their income may exceed program limits (in nearly half of the states, even a working parent with an annual income of $12,000 earns too much to qualify for coverage) or they may not meet other stringent eligibility criteria. 

Helping to Move Women and Children Out of Poverty: Try Child Care

by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst
National Women’s Law Center

Child care is an anti-poverty strategy—for parents struggling to support their families, child care providers trying to make a living, and children who we need to be the productive workers of the future.

Helping low-income parents pay for child care that they could not afford on their own increases the likelihood that they will be able to get and keep a job and have a steady income to support their families.  One study found that single mothers who received child care assistance were 39 percent more likely to remain employed after two years than those who did not receive assistance in paying for child care.  Former welfare recipients with young children were 82 percent more likely to be employed after two years if they received child care assistance.

Investments in child care can also help boost the salaries of child care providers, which are typically very low.  In 2007, the average annual salary of a child care worker was just $19,670—below the poverty level for a family of four ($20,650 in 2007).

Investing in high-quality child care isn’t just a strategy for reducing poverty today, but also for reducing poverty tomorrow. Studies show that high-quality child care and early education increase the chances that children will enter school ready to succeed, which improves the odds that children will graduate from high school, go on to college, gain stable employment, and be self-sufficient. 

As a strategy for reducing poverty, supporting high-quality child care is a win-win-win situation.

Today is Blog Action Day on Poverty

by Robin Reed, Online Outreach Manager
National Women’s Law Center

Today, thousands of blogs around the world will be taking part in Blog Action Day 2008 by writing about poverty -- its causes, its effects, and its solutions.

Here at NWLC's blog, you'll be hearing from us throughout the day about the impact poverty has on women and their families. It's a major one -- our recent analysis found that last year, there were 14.4 million women living in poverty in the United States, and the poverty rate for women was 42 percent higher than for men.

If you'd like to take part in Blog Action Day, there's still time. If you have your own blog, you can sign up at the official Blog Action Day website. If you don't have a blog, we invite you to post comments here, sharing your thoughts on women and poverty.