NEW YORK (AP) — How much of a setback has the coronavirus pandemic been for working women in the United States?
Although the majority of women who lost or left their jobs at the height of the crisis have returned to work, recent findings show that many have paid a price for leaving their jobs: by 2023, full-time The pay gap between working men and women is widening, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual report, which has increased year-on-year for the first time in 20 years.
Associated Press correspondent Julie Walker reports on what’s behind the widening gender pay gap.
Full-time working women will earn 83 cents on the dollar compared to men in 2023, down from a historic high of 84 cents in 2022. The Census Bureau said this is the first statistically significant percentage increase since 2003.
Economists trying to make sense of this data say that amid the uneven post-pandemic labor market recovery, many women are finally starting full-time jobs, especially in hard-hit low-wage industries such as hospitality. The film captures the complicated moment when he returned to work. Social work and nursing care.
The news isn’t all bad. Wages rose for all workers last year, but at a faster pace for men. And while the gender pay gap has widened, it’s still on par with 2019 levels before the pandemic hit.
SJ Glynn, chief economist at the Department of Labor, said it was too early to tell whether 2023 was a blip or the start of a worrying new trend in the gender pay gap. . But she said just returning to the pre-pandemic status quo is a reminder of how far women were left behind in the first place, and shows how the pandemic has slowed progress toward gender equality.
And while wage inequality reached a historic low in 2022, this is a false statement because the pandemic forced so many low-wage women out of full-time jobs and pushed up their average median income. It may have been a reduction. Noreen Farrell, executive director of Equal Rights Advocates and chair of Equal Pay Today, a coalition of organizations advocating for gender equality in the workplace, said:
The rapid increase in the number of Latinos in the labor force had an impact.Hispanic women in particular exemplify the complexity of this moment. They will see a smaller wage gap from 2022 to 2023 compared to full-time working white men, according to Census Bureau data analyzed by both the National Women’s Law Center and the National Partnership for Women and Families. Women were the only overall population group to shrink. and advocacy groups. The pay gap between black and Asian women widened, but the pay gap for white women remained the same.
But even though wages are rising slightly faster than other women, Latinas remain among the lowest-paid workers, with a median full-time income of $43,880. In contrast, black women earn $50,470, white women earn $60,450, and white men earn $75,950. As a result, their rapid entry into the full-time labor force in 2023 likely slowed median wage growth for women overall and contributed to the expansion in gender pay in that year. Liana Fox, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Social Affairs, Economy and Housing, said: Census Bureau Statistics Division.
Latinos are entering the workforce at a faster pace than non-Hispanics and are increasingly becoming the driving force of the U.S. economy. From 2022 to 2023, the number of Latina women working full time increased by 5%, while the total number of women working full time remained the same.
According to IWPR, Arian Hegewisch, director of the Employment and Earnings Program at the Women’s Policy Research Institute, said the slight narrowing of the Latino pay gap is due to the fact that Latinos’ presence in the highest-paying occupations has increased over the past year. He said this may be due to the increase from 13.5% to 14.2%. Analysis of federal labor data.
However, the proportion of Latinas in full-time, low-wage jobs will also increase in 2023, she added.
Economic recovery leaves part-time Latino workers behind
A Department of Labor report examining the pandemic’s disproportionate toll on women found that Latino workers, a major demographic group, were hit hardest by the pandemic, with an unemployment rate of 20.1% in April 2020. It was the highest of all.
Domestic workers, who are overwhelmingly female immigrants, especially felt the impact. Many people lost their jobs, including Ingrid Vaca, a Hispanic senior home care worker in Falls Church, Virginia.
Vaca, who is from La Paz, Bolivia, has contracted COVID-19 several times and was hospitalized for a week in 2020 due to difficulty breathing. Even after she recovered, she continued to test positive and was unable to enter her family’s home or work for much of that year and the following year.
She didn’t have money to pay for food or rent. “It’s been very difficult,” she said of how she lost clients over the holidays and still struggles to find steady, full-time work.
The Census Bureau calculates the gender pay gap by comparing only men and women who work year-round in full-time jobs. But data that includes part-time workers paints an even tougher picture for women, said Jocelyn Fry, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families.
For example, the group’s report, which analyzed Census Bureau microdata, found that the measure would make Latinos earn just 51 cents for every dollar paid to white men, and that the gender pay gap would close by 2022. This has increased from 52 cents on the dollar.
Matthew Finep, executive director of the Center for Economic Research and Forecasting at California Lutheran University, predicts that Latina women’s increases in wages, educational attainment, and contribution to U.S. GDP “will continue for the foreseeable future.” said. For women overall, she noted that the gender pay gap has steadily narrowed since 1981, although it has widened over the years.
“It’s important not to place too much emphasis on single-year data points,” he added.
Political divisions hinder policy solutions
Still, the pace of progress was slow and there were periods of stagnation.
Seher Khawaja, director of economic justice at Legal Momentum, a national women’s civil rights organization, said the gender pay gap will continue to exist in the United States until the structural issues that cause it are addressed. will continue to do so.
“There are some fundamental issues that we haven’t really fixed,” Khawaja said.
For example, today’s economy relies heavily on women who perform unpaid or low-paid care work for children and the elderly. “Until we accept the fact that we need to give care work the value it deserves, women will continue to be marginalized,” Khawaja said.
Although many Democrats and Republicans agree on the structural challenges facing women in the workforce, they are uncertain about policy solutions, such as expanding paid family leave and protections for pregnant workers. have a hard time finding common ground.
The ongoing fight centers around the Democratic-sponsored Paycheck Fairness Act, which would update the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and also protect workers from retaliation for discussing pay. Advocates argue that this practice helps keep workers in the dark about wage discrimination.
Republicans have generally opposed the bill, saying it would be redundant and encourage frivolous lawsuits. But Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday renewed her support for the bill proposed by Democrats in the wake of the death of equal pay icon Lilly Ledbetter, one of her most prominent advocates.
Meanwhile, wage inequality has a knock-on effect, Khawaja explains. “It’s not just women who suffer; it’s their families and children who suffer from a lack of adequate income and compensation, and this creates an intergenerational cycle of poverty and insecurity. ”
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