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Title: Financial Struggles of Working-Class Women Reveal Potential for More Robust Family-Friendly Policy Response

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2022

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Abstract: In 2021, the economy added more jobs than it had in nearly two decades. Despite the fact that women’s labor force participation rates have approximately returned to pre-pandemic levels,1 working-class women and mothers are still lagging behind. Women who stay in low-wage jobs or who are employed in the service sector may experience volatile hours, affecting their take-home pay, not to mention the stress they may bring home to their children. Overall economic gains did not flow to the working class, exposing the deep veins of inequality that run through the US economic system. Higher rates of job switching during the recovery phase of the pandemic recession may signal a critical need to develop more responsive, family-based economic policies and workplace practices that can transform bad jobs into better jobs. Specifically, policies and practices need to ensure greater income security, better pay, and more stable scheduling that helps stabilize the week-to-week or month-to-month family financial situations. Historically, women’s poverty rates have been higher than men’s for nearly all races and ethnicities, whether measured using the official poverty measure or the supplemental poverty measure (SPM).2 3 This is despite increased overall female participation in the labor force over the last half century and the consistently high frequency of nonwhite mothers’ employment, which has increased considerably over the past few decades. Even in 2020, a year with massive government economic response to the pandemic, women still had a higher SPM poverty rate relative to men nationwide, even with a poverty measure that accounts for all sources of government transfers and net of tax.4 The intersection of educational attainment, family structure, and the low-wage labor market may jointly shape women’s economic well-being. In 2020, nearly five-in-nine workers in the US were paid hourly wages as opposed to annual salaries.5 More than 77 percent of wage workers do not hold a bachelor’s degree (as compared to only 36.7 percent of salaried workers).6 Although pay levels have long affected the financial well-being of workers, particularly those employed in the service sector, the prevalence of unstable working hours is drawing new attention from researchers and policy makers. Besides those in food service and retail, service sector jobs may include work in health care, building cleaning or maintenance, and care work—a sector where women are overwhelmingly employed. Adding a child to these families may pose additional financial challenges, especially to sole caregivers (mostly mothers). High childcare costs often push families with young children into poverty.7 It is not uncommon for these families to have insufficient resources and liquid assets to buffer the negative consequences of work volatility. This brief examines three aspects of economic security facing women in recent years: poverty, instability in working hours, and a lack of financial savings, with special attention paid to lesseducated women with children.

Url: https://www.cepr.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/2022-05-Womens-Work-Hours-Cai-and-Peck.pdf

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Authors: Cai, Julie; Peck, Joe

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Data Collections: IPUMS CPS

Topics: Gender, Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Poverty and Welfare

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