Economic equity news is a weekly round-up of articles by Donna Seymour of AAUW-NYS that features our core values of poverty solutions, opportunity and access, workplace fairness, healthy lives, equal pay and representation at all tables. Sign up for our mailing list to receive this directly to your inbox.
- Black Women in the Labor Force via the Department of Labor
As Black History Month comes to a close and Women’s History Month begins, it’s a good time to take a look at the progress we’ve made toward equality in the workplace for black women and the challenges they still face. We’ve undoubtedly made substantial progress over the past few decades. Black women earn more than ever and continue to be more likely than other women to participate in the labor force. In 2015, six in 10 black women were employed or actively looking for work.
- How Older Women Are Reshaping U.S. Job Market via Yahoo! Finance
More female workers delay retirement, a shift that’s helping to transform America’s economy. Since the start of the most recent recession in December 2007, the share of older working women has grown while the percentage of every other category of U.S. worker—by gender and age—has declined or is flat.
It’s 2016, but women are still paid only 79 cents for every dollar paid to white men. Equal Pay Day is the symbolic day when women’s earnings “catch up” to men’s earnings from the year before. This year that day falls on April 12, 2016. Help AAUW spread the word in your campus community by planning an unequal pay bake sale, writing an op-ed, or hosting a campus rally.
- Status of Women in the South via IWPR
IWPR’s The Status of Women in the South is the first report to provide a comprehensive portrait of the status of women, particularly the status of women of color, in the southern states, grading each state on six different topic areas related to women’s economic, political, health, and social status.
There is still a considerable disparity in what men and women earn across the developed world. Research by the OECD has shown just how pronounced the gender pay gap really is. Defined as the difference between male and female earnings as a percentage of male earnings, the gender pay gap is most pronounced in two developed countries in Asia – South Korea and Japan.
Donna Seymour, who hails from the (far upstate) North Country of NYS, has spent 40 plus years advocating for children, women and family issues, equity, sustainability, and social justice issues. Currently serving as the Public Policy VP for AAUW-NYS (the American Association University Women), she is also a member the League of Women Voters, the Equal Pay Coalition, PTA, NOW, and Planned Parenthood, just to name a few.