April 22, 2015
Page 7
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Dramatic
differences
state by state
BY
M ARTHA B URK
For years, Time
magazine has a run
a feature on the best
places to live in the
United States. But no-
body ever ranked the
best places for women — until
now.
A major factor for anyone’s
quality of life, of course, is the
ability to earn a living. And
nationally, according to a new
study by the Institute for Wom-
en’s Policy Research, women
workers pull in an average of
just $38,000 a year, compared
to $48,000 for their male coun-
terparts.
But it varies dramatically
from state to state. You could
either
be shortchanged or
e
reap
a relative bonanza
re
all
a because of where you
hang
your hat.
h
Young women in the
District
of Columbia rake
D
in the most, at nearly
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women come in second at 40
grand. Way out west, Idaho is
dead last at just under $25,000,
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barrel honors.
And that ever-present pay
gap with men? It’s better in
New York. Though women in
the state overall get just 87.6
percent of men’s pay, young
women actually out-earn their
male peers by 2 cents on the
dollar — which puts that state
at the top of the heap.
Women in Wyoming suffer
the most in that regard, getting
paid just 67.9 cents to their
brother’s buck.
One reason could be that
Wyoming women have their
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an average age of 23 — com-
pared to their sisters in Go-
tham, who wait until they’re 27
or 28, giving them more time to
get educated and start careers.
Some states are closing the
gap faster than others, but it’s
going to be a long time before
women in any state reach pari-
ty with men.
Based on historic rates of
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but not until 2038. And poor
Wyoming won’t be equal for
another century and a half.
There are a few other sur-
prises. Well, maybe more than
a few. For example, young
women in D.C. binge drink
more than those in America’s
sin city, Las Vegas. Is that due
to frustration with government
gridlock? The report doesn’t
say.
Researchers also look at
depression. As you’d expect,
sunny climes like Hawaii and
California boast the happi-
est workers, while cold, rainy
states are downers.
What’s a girl to do?
Since not everybody can
just pick up and move, a better
question is what the states can
do to improve women’s lives.
Providing better educational
opportunities and higher pay,
including a bigger minimum
wage, would make great places
to start.
Martha Burk is the director
RIWKH&RUSRUDWH$FFRXQWDELOLW\
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cil of Women’s Organizations
and the author of the book Your
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Woman’s Guide to Power, Pol-
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Dark cloud
inside a
silver lining
M ARC H. M ORIAL
One of the advan-
tages of my position as
the president and CEO
of the National Urban
League is that I have
both the opportunity
and platform to speak to so
many of our nation’s young
people. I was presented with
that same opportunity recent-
ly as a featured speaker of the
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Lecture Series.
As I addressed that crowd of
future lawyers, IT profession-
als and perhaps even a pres-
ident of the National Urban
League, it struck me that for a
number of these students—our
future workforce— they may
encounter an America and a
job market that is hostile to the
principles of economic mobil-
ity on which our country was
founded.
Five years after the wide-
ly-accepted end of the global
economic downturn com-
monly known as the Great
Recession, America’s econo-
my inches ever closer to full
recovery. In fact, the start of
2015 saw the most sustained
period of job creation this cen-
BY
tury.
But the dark cloud inside
this silver lining is that too
many people are still being
left behind—particularly in
our
communities of
o
color,
where unem-
co
ployment
remains at
p
a crisis level, even as
our
o economy contin-
ues
u to rebound.
For blacks and
Latinos
in America,
L
the economic devastation of
the Great Recession is as real
today as it was when it began
in 2007 and what we’ve found
in our newly released 2015
State of Black America report
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Jobs + Justice” is a mixed eco-
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tale of two Americas.
The U.S. economy added
295,000 jobs in February of
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since 1997, we have seen
12 straight months of pri-
vate-sector job growth above
200,000 and unemployment
is down to 5.5 percent—its
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But despite this encouraging
news, the black unemploy-
ment is twice that of white
unemployment, wages are
stagnant and many working
people are not earning enough
to make ends meet.
The Equality Index in the
State of Black America report
catalogued black, Hispan-
ic and white unemployment
and income inequality in the
nation’s largest metropolitan
areas. Overall, the black un-
employment rate was at 11.3
percent and the Latino unem-
ployment rate stood at 7.4 per-
cent versus a white unemploy-
ment rate of 5.3 percent. Of
the 70 cities ranked for black-
white unemployment, almost
half (33 cities) had a black
unemployment rate above
15 percent. In seven of those
cities we discovered Great
Depression era black unem-
ployment rates of 20 percent
or higher.
It is clear that for far too
many blacks and Latinos, our
nation’s economic recovery
is only something they read
or hear about. According
to our analysis, America’s
comeback is bypassing large
swaths of people in black and
brown neighborhoods—and
that is dangerous—not only
to those communities, but to
our nation. A recovery that
leaves millions of its citi-
zens behind will ultimately
threaten America’s sustained
growth.
In a recent report on jobs
and unemployment in the
black community, Econom-
ic Policy Institute economist
Valerie Wilson said, “Even
before the Great Recession,
black unemployment has con-
sistently been twice as high as
white unemployment. To ad-
dress this problem, we need to
look beyond simply returning
to the pre-recession status quo
and implement policies aimed
at ensuring that everyone who
is willing and able to work has
a job.”
A central focus of the Na-
tional Urban League is work-
force development, and being
in the business of creating jobs
and proposing solutions to our
longstanding challenges, our
organization has advanced the
following public-policy rec-
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Passage of a transportation
infrastructure bill with a tar-
geted jobs component; pas-
sage a targeted, large-scale
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jobs bill; and raising the min-
imum wage to a living wage.
Experts are predicting an-
other strong month of job cre-
ation. While we applaud ev-
ery stride our country makes
in resuscitating our once bat-
tered economy, we remain
vigilant—and concerned—
about the disparity of access
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nation’s citizens as revealed
in the State of Black America
report. I am concerned for all
Americans, but especially for
all the students I meet who
live in those communities in
crisis and are working so hard
in their classrooms now while
they dream of a better future.
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ident and chief executive of-
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League.
The Law Offices of
Patrick John Sweeney, P.C.
Patrick John Sweeney
Attorney at Law
1549 SE Ladd
Portland, Oregon
Portland:
Hillsoboro:
Facsimile:
Email:
(503) 244-2080
(503) 244-2081
(503) 244-2084
Sweeney@PDXLawyer.com