An Opportunity in this COVID-19 Crisis: Cue Up Research on Pay Equity

California’s state budget is tanking – fewer revenues due to reduced income and sales taxes and greater expenditures due to unemployment pay-outs and other costs to deal with COVID-19.

To address the shortfall, union leaders are in final-stage negotiations with the Administration and State Legislature to determine if state worker salaries might be reduced – through pay cuts or furloughs.

Ironically, that puts union leaders – and especially SEIU 1000 President Yvonne Walker, due to the size and diversity of her membership – in a strategic position to make sure state worker pay equity is front and center when the state’s finances rebound.

The way to do this is to cue up research that offers a more precise picture of where gender pay gaps exist.

I recently reviewed (with valuable input from colleagues) research on “women’s earnings” from the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR). The report released this year – analyzing 2016 data – was a considerable step up from previous publications.  Continue reading “An Opportunity in this COVID-19 Crisis: Cue Up Research on Pay Equity”

Ban the “Pink Tax” from Cradle to Cane

I remember being pregnant with my daughter and having to exit a Toys-R-Us store, overwhelmed by aisles of pink toys and blue toys.

That memory came to mind yesterday as I watched online California State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson’s press conference, where she announced the introduction of SB 873. This bill would outlaw the “pink tax,” when there’s an up-charge on goods marketed to women and girls, compared to the cost of identical or similar products marketed to men.

It’s a real thing.

Not only did the fuzzy, wuzzy pink bear displayed at the press conference cost more than the twin blue bear sitting next to it, comprehensive research backs up the need to ban the pink tax.

In December 2015, The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs published From Cradle to Cane: The Cost of Being a Female Consumer.  This study, which compared nearly 800 products offering male and female versions, found higher costs for:  Continue reading “Ban the “Pink Tax” from Cradle to Cane”

How are Women and Girls Faring in California? Check out the Women’s Well-Being Index

Are you an elected official? A social service provider or advocate? Perhaps you’re a philanthropist deciding where your donation can make the most difference.

Or maybe you’re just a run-of-the mill numbers nerd (like me).

If you’re any of the above, it’s well worth your time to dive into the data in the Women’s Well-Being Index – and check out how women and girls are faring in California.

An update of the online Index – developed by the California Budget and Policy Center in partnership with the Women’s Foundation of California – was released in a webinar this week.

CBPC’s Senior Policy Analyst Kristin Schumacher took the lead to develop the Index and accompanying issue briefs in four areas: Work Supports, Boosting Income, Building Wealth, and Safety Net.

What makes the Index particularly powerful is that it provides data for all 58 California counties, with multiple indicators for women’s health, personal safety, employment and earnings, economic security, and political empowerment.

The Index also ranks counties, and you can download county fact sheets.

For Sacramento, where I live, I learned we rank in the top 10 for only one indicator: mental health status. Just over 7 percent of women age 18 and over experienced serious psychological distress in the past year, placing us 7th out of the state’s 58 counties.

On a far less positive note, Sacramento ranked in the bottom 10 on 3 indicators: women’s commute time (52nd), hospital visits due to assault (52nd), and neighborhood safety (49th), the percentage of women who feel safe in their neighborhood all or most of their time.

Some of the Index’s statewide findings are especially alarming: In every age group, California women are more likely than men to live in poverty. And poverty is significantly greater for women who are African American (21.4%), Native American (21.3%); and Latinx (18.3%) than for women who are Asian & Pacific Islander (11.7%) or white (10.4%).

And consider these statistics for single mothers: On average, 60% of a single mom’s median income is needed to pay fair market rent, and 67.2% is needed for child care for an infant and school-age child.

Surina Khan, who directs the Women’s Foundation of California, points out that these “combined costs for housing and child care add up to more than 100% of median income in every county in California – which means there is nothing left over for other basic necessities like food, transportation and clothing. That’s why people are going into debt.”

Be sure to check out the Women’s Well-Being Index. You don’t have to be a numbers nerd to realize it’s a terrific tool for research, policy analysis and understanding more about the lives of women and girls in California.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Close the Gap’s Recruitment Strategy Works: Progressive Women Candidates Win Races

Susannah Delano, Executive Director at Close the Gap CA, had a good week – and it’s all because of the primary election results on June 5.

Her organization works to achieve gender parity in California’s State Legislature by recruiting progressive women to run for open seats, where no incumbent is running, or in purple districts, where most voters aren’t decisively red (Republican) or blue (Democratic).

Close the Gap CA targeted nine winnable districts in the primary with the goal of ensuring “at least one progressive woman was prepared to compete” in the general election.

And compete they did, with wins in eight of the nine districts:

Senate: Anna Caballero (SD 12); Melissa Hurtado (SD 14); Susan Rubio (SD 22); and Maria Elena Durazo (SD 24). Take note – all of these winning candidates are Latinas!

Assembly: Buffy Wicks (AD 15); Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (AD 16); Luz Rivas (AD 39); Tasha Boerner-Horvath (AD 76); and Elizabeth Warren (also in AD 76).

In AD 15, where Buffy Wicks was the top voter-getter, the results aren’t yet finalized: Candidate Jovanka Beckles is in a close 3rd place behind Dan Kalb. If the final vote count moves Beckles into 2nd place, the general election in AD 15 would then be another electoral contest with two progressive women, like AD 76.

As of next week, there will be:

·      10 women in the 40-member State Senate (6 Dems, 4 Reps);

·      20 women in the 80-member State Assembly (17 Dems, 3 Reps);

·      3 women of color in the State Senate (2 Asian Americans, 1 African American);

·      15 women of color in the Assembly (12 Latinas, 3 African Americans); and

·      2 LGBTQ women in the State Senate and 2 in the Assembly.

From this starting point of 23 Democratic women in both houses, Delano expects the number of Democratic women in the State Legislature to tick upwards after the general election in November, approaching 30.

“It’s already clear that 2018 has been an extraordinary year for women candidates,” said Delano. “Close the Gap CA will keep preparing women to run,” she added, “but lasting change depends on whether or not voters will continue to elect them.”