NEW YORK (AP) — How big of a setback has the COVID-19 pandemic posed for working women in the United States?
Although women who lost or quit their jobs at the height of the crisis have largely returned to the workforce, a recent finding points to the price many are paying for stepping back: By 2023, The pay gap between men and women working full-time is widening. compared to the same period last year for the first time in 20 years, according to a report annual report from the United States Census Bureau.
Economists trying to make sense of the data said it captures a complex moment in the labor market’s fragmented recovery from the pandemic as many women finally return to full-time work , especially in hard-hit low-wage industries where they are over-represented such as hospitality, social work and care.
The news wasn’t all bad: Wages rose for all workers last year, but faster for men. And while the gender pay gap is widening, it remains on par with 2019 before the pandemic struck.
In 2023, women working full-time earned 83 cents on the dollar more than men, down from a historic high of 84 cents in 2022. The Census Bureau calls this a major expansion statistically significant for the first time since 2003.
That’s a reversal from five years ago when the ratio was narrowing – a trend that may be partly driven by rising average median earnings for women as so many low-wage women have lost full-time job.
SJ Glynn, the Labor Department’s chief economist, said it was too early to know whether 2023 was a blip or the start of a worrying new trend in the gender wage gap. But she says even a return to the pre-pandemic status quo is a reminder of how far behind women were in the first place, and shows how much the pandemic has slowed progress toward gender equality. how.
Hispanic women in particular illustrate the complexity of this moment. According to Census Bureau data analyzed by both the National Women’s Law Center and the National Partnership for Women and Families, they are the only demographic group of women overall with approximately Wage gaps narrow slightly from 2022 to 2023 compared to white men working full-time. and advocacy groups. For black women and Asian women, the wage gap widened, and for white women, the ratio remained the same.
Latinos do increasingly becoming the driving force of the US economy as they enter the labor force at a faster rate than non-Hispanics. From 2022 to 2023, the number of Latinas working full-time increased by 5% while the total number of full-time female workers remained the same.
Matthew Fienup, executive director of California Lutheran University’s Center for Economic Research and Forecasting, said he expects increases in Latino wages, educational attainment and contribution to US GDP “to continue for near future”. As for women in general, he notes that the gender wage gap has gradually narrowed since 1981 despite occasionally widening from one year to the next.
“It’s important not to put too much emphasis on one year’s data points,” he added.
However, the pace of progress remains slow and there are periods of stagnation.
Latinas remain among the lowest-paid workers — with median full-time earnings of $43,880, compared with $50,470 for Black women, $60,450 for white women and $75,950 for men white men — so their rapid entry into the full-time labor force in 2023 helped slow the average rate. According to Liana, the overall increase in women’s wages may have contributed to the expansion of the gender wage that year foxDeputy Chief of Social, Economic and Housing Statistics at the Census Bureau.
And Latina workers have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic, suffering the highest unemployment rate at 20.1% in April 2020 of any major demographic group, according to a report. Report of the Department of Labor examined the pandemic’s disproportionate toll on women.
Domestic workers are people Immigrant women are disproportionately representedespecially feel the effects. Many people lost their jobs, including Ingrid Vaca, a Hispanic home care worker in Falls Church, Virginia.
Vaca, from La Paz, Bolivia, contracted Covid-19 multiple times and was hospitalized for a week in 2020 because of difficulty breathing. She continued to test positive even after recovering, so was unable to enter the home or do family work for most of that year or the next.
She had no money to buy food or pay rent. “It was very difficult,” she said, describing how she lost clients while she was away and is still struggling to find steady, full-time work.
The Census Bureau calculates the gender wage gap by comparing only men and women who work full-time year-round. But a grimmer picture for women emerges from data that includes part-time workers, said Jocelyn Frye, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families.
For example, Latinas were paid just 51 cents for every dollar paid to white men under this measure, and their gender pay gap increased from 52 cents on the dollar in 2022, according to the report. The Census Bureau’s microdata analysis organization.
Ariane Hegewisch, director of the employment and earnings program at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, said the narrowing of the wage gap for Latinas can be attributed to their presence in wage-earning occupations. the highest increased from 13.5% to 14.2% last year, according to IWPR. Analyze federal labor data.
However, the share of Latinos in full-time, low-wage jobs also increased in 2023, she added.
According to Seher Khawaja, director of Economic Justice at national women’s civil rights organization Legal Momentum, the United States will continue to have a gender wage gap until it addresses the structural problems that caused that.
“There are some fundamental issues that we really haven’t fixed,” Khawaja said.
For example, the current economy depends heavily on women working unpaid or low-paid care work for children and the elderly. “Until we come to terms with the fact that we need to give value to care work, women will continue to be left behind,” Khawaja said.
While many Democrats and Republicans agree on the structural challenges facing women in the workforce, they still struggle to find common ground on policy solutions, including including Expanded paid family leave and provide Protect pregnant workers.
A fight is underway over the Democratic-sponsored Paycheck Fairness Act, which would update the Equal Pay Act of 1963, including protecting workers from retaliation for drafting discussion about their wages, one proponent of the practice said helps workers who are unaware of wage discrimination.
Republicans generally oppose the bill as redundant and conducive to frivolous lawsuits. However, Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated her support for the Democratic-sponsored bill on Monday following the death of one of its most prominent supporters, Equal pay icon Lilly Ledbetter.
“It’s not just women who suffer,” Khawaja explains. Their own families and children are suffering from lack of income and adequate compensation. And this is fueling intergenerational cycles of poverty and insecurity.”
