CPA News Releases, Advisories, and Editorials

Labor Day Finds 61 Million Women At Work;Women Are Key to Future Economic Growth

CPA Issues State-by-State Data on Women At Work

Washington, DC — More than 61 million working women are in America’s labor force as the nation celebrates Labor Day, 1998, according to estimates by the Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA) and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR). Women are now 46% of the labor force and, according to CPA President and CEO Linda Tarr-Whelan, “women are a powerful force in the current strong economy and the key to the nation’s future economic growth.”

Nationally, 59% of women aged 16 and over are in the labor force — in full or part-time jobs — and many of them are working moms. Sixty-three percent of working women have children under age six and 78% have children aged six to seventeen. Seventy-five percent of men 16 and over are in the work force.

“This Kellogg initiative has an enormous potential to amplify the experiences of successful community health care models and replicate them across the country,” said CPA President and CEO Linda Tarr-Whelan. “We’re very excited to be able to help move ideas to action through this.”

The percentage of working women varies from state to state. Minnesota, with just under 70% and Nebraska, with 68% have the highest percentages of women in the labor force; West Virginia, with 46% of women working has the lowest.

“CPA will provide technical assistance on policy to all 13 learning laboratories and serve as an information clearinghouse for the Community Voices initiative,” said CPA Community Voices project director Nancy Epstein. “Our job is to spotlight innovative and successful community health care strategies.”

The percentage of working women varies from state to state. Minnesota, with just under 70% and Nebraska, with 68% have the highest percentages of women in the labor force; West Virginia, with 46% of women working has the lowest.

Women are working across the occupational landscape, as top executives, in professional and technical positions, in sales, service, manufacturing, farming and forestry. Nationally, 30% of women in the labor force hold executive, managerial or professional jobs. The District of Columbia, with 47%, and Maryland, with 40% are first and second in the nation in the percentage of women in such jobs. Indiana and Alabama, each under 25%, rank at the bottom.

“There’s no question that women are moving up and competing successfully in all occupations. Unfortunately their rewards don’t match their contributions by a long shot,” says Tarr-Whelan. “When women are short-changed, their families and the overall economy suffers.” Tarr-Whelan notes that, “too many women are still caught between the glass ceiling and the sticky floor.” Women still earn less – three dollars for every four earned by men — and are less likely than men to have health or retirement benefits.

Those factors, according to Tarr-Whelan, in part explain the boom in businesses created and owned by women. More than a third of all U.S. businesses are women owned — 8 million in all — and together they provide employment for one of every four private sector workers and generate $2.3 trillion in sales annually. “That’s a powerful engine for the economy,” says Tarr-Whelan, “and it’s just a part of the story. The fact is that women-owned firms are more likely to offer their own employees benefits that help working families, like flex-time and profit-sharing.”

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Editors Please Note: See the enclosed Media Resource Booklet for state-by-state tables and national statistics on the role of women in the economy and the labor force. All of the information is also available at CPA’s web site, Women at Work: Facts About Working Women