Today, over two-thirds of mothers are working in paid jobs outside the home—twice as many as were working outside the home in 1965. And their collective contributions are enormous: Mothers earned $960 billion in 2013. They are the sole wage earner in one-third of all American families.
Indeed, a mother’s earnings typically account for 40 percent of her family’s income. In the poorest families, mothers contribute twice that amount86 percent to their families’ total income.
These are among the findings of a new report by the Democratic staff of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) that paints a vastly different portrait of motherhood than what was the norm just four or five decades ago.
Yet, despite revolutionary changes in the number of women in the labor force, public policy remains mired in the Leave it to Beaver era.
As a result, the work/family calculus has become harder for mothers to balance. Fathers have taken on greater responsibility for the care of families, but mothers still spend more than twice as much time with their children as fathers do. And astoundingly women are actually penalized for becoming mothers.
Working mothers earn 3 percent less than women without children subjecting them to a “mommy penalty.” Fathers, on the other hand, earn 15 percent more than men without children a “daddy bonus!
These disparities are neither inevitable nor intractable. We could take a number of steps to reduce the disparity in pay and help lighten the load for mothers across America. All it would take is the recognition that we live in the 21st century, not the 1950s, and that public policy should catch up with the fact that 70 percent of mothers are now in the labor force.
Congress could, for example, adopt the Paycheck Fairness Act to help ensure women receive equal pay for equal work. Or it could raise the minimum wage to help women make a living wage, as they make up 63 percent of the workforce earning at or below the minimum wage. Congress could bring the U.S. in line with 182 other nations and pass legislation enacting paid time off for the birth or adoption of a child, leaving Papua New Guinea and Oman as the two outliers. Or Congress could approve legislation guaranteeing paid sick leave, expanding affordable day care and encouraging more flexible work policies to help ease the burden under which working mothers now labor.
Politicians give ample lip service to “family values.” But family values should begin by valuing families, which means recognizing mothers for their significant contribution to the financial well-being of their families and crafting policies that help them excel both at home and at the office.
So, when Mother’s Day rolls around next year, flowers are nice, but let’s give our mothers something they can really use: common sense policies that make life easier for mothers, fathers and their children.
Carolyn B. Maloney is the U.S. representative for New York’s 12th Congressional District. First elected to Congress in 1992, Rep. Maloney is recognized as a national leader with extensive accomplishments on financial services, national security, the economy and women’s issues. She is a senior member of both the House Financial Services Committee (where she serves as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Capital Markets) and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and the Ranking House member of the Joint Economic Committee. In the House Democratic Caucus, she serves as a Regional Whip (she served as Vice-Chair of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee in the 112th Congress). Rep. Maloney has authored and passed more than 60 measures, either as stand-alone bills or as language incorporated into larger bills.
Click here to see other op-eds.
Early this spring, we stood together with our colleagues in Congress, civil rights leaders and thousands of others on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, trying to imagine the incredible courage it must have once taken to simply walk across that bridge despite knowing with grim certainty that clubs, tear gas and fire hoses were waiting for you on the other side.
We were there to commemorate the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday," a day that changed the course of American history when peaceful civil rights marchers were tear gassed, beaten and brutalized by police and dogs were unleashed on women and children. Photos of those events shocked the conscience of a nation, galvanized public support for civil rights, and made very clear that things needed to change.
Fast forward to today, and disturbing pictures of confrontations between crowds of African- Americans and police once again flood our TV screens. And while the details are different, a new report by the Democratic staff of the U.S. Congress' Joint Economic Committee shows that many African-American families are still struggling -- and still facing troubling economic disparities.
Baltimore didn't happen in a vacuum.
Take the current unemployment rate for blacks (10.1%), which is more than double the rate for whites (4.7%.) In fact, a higher percentage of blacks are unemployed now than the percentage of whites who were unemployed in the very depths of our most recent recession. If the unemployment rate for white Americans was still over 10% it would rightly be considered a national emergency. Why should it be different for anyone else?
These numbers are deeply disturbing.
Some say the best thing to do is to do nothing -- allow the free market to solve these problems and wait for the astronomical incomes of the extremely rich to "trickle down" to the rest of America. But experience has shown that this "solution" is a mirage.
So, what can we can do now to help provide opportunity to Americans of all backgrounds?
First and foremost, we should increase the federal minimum wage. The real value of the minimum wage (which accounts for inflation) has dropped by a third since its peak in 1968. Simply restoring the hourly minimum wage to the 1968 value of $10.90 would mean an additional $7,592 annually to full-time minimum wage workers. This would lift millions out of poverty. It is a clearly pro-family policy that polls show most Americans strongly support.
Second, we should expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, which provides poorer families greater economic incentive to work hard and earn more. In 2013, the tax credit lifted 6.2 million people out of poverty.
We should expand early childhood education, restore cuts to Pell Grants and strengthen the role of community colleges. Everyone says education is the key to success in America -- let's act like we mean it and make sure that every American has that key.
We should enlarge the Child Dependent Care Tax Credit, giving a hand to working families.
We also should get serious about passing some of the numerous bipartisan bills that address problems in our criminal justice system. The Smarter Sentencing Act would be a great place to start.
It will take political courage for local and state leaders to support the kind of reforms that are needed. But doing these things would demand far less courage than that shown by the young people who were beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge for standing up for civil rights.
But to begin the process we first need to acknowledge the truth revealed by the data -- that America is still not the land of equal opportunity for all that it aspires to be. If we can confront that reality, then maybe these numbers, like the photos from a bridge in Alabama, will galvanize us into taking action.
Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, is ranking Democrat on the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee. G.K. Butterfield, D-North Carolina, is chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Click here to see other op-eds.
WASHINGTON– Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), Ranking Democrat on the U.S. Congress's Joint Economic Committee (JEC), today released the following statement on the Department of Labor's announcement that the economy added 223,000 nonfarm jobs in April and the unemployment rate edged down to 5.4 percent.
“April’s encouraging jobs report sets another record – the lowest unemployment rate in seven years. It was also the 62nd consecutive month that businesses added jobs—the longest streak on record. With the economy continuing to improve, Congress must not forget those who still aren’t feeling the effects of the recovery and work in a bipartisan fashion to ensure that all Americans benefit.
“The findings of a recent report by JEC Democrats titled, Economic Challenges in the Black Community, reinforce the fact that great disparity still exists in the distribution of this recovery. All working people should be paid a living wage and be given a fighting chance to improve their economic conditions. Passing the Raise the Wage Act would show hardworking Americans that Congress is fighting for them. No person working full time, year-round should live in poverty."
NEW YORK – In anticipation of Mother’s Day, Joint Economic Committee (JEC) Ranking Democrat Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) released a new report today identifying the enormous economic contributions mothers make to the financial support of their families.
The study found that the economic security of two-thirds of American families depends upon a mother’s earnings; mothers typically contribute 40 percent to their families’ overall incomes, collectively earning $960 billion in 2013; and one in three working mothers is the breadwinner.
The Joint Economic Committee report, titled How Working Mothers Contribute to the Economic Security of American Families, details the dramatic changes in the labor force over the last few decades; the central role mothers play in supporting their families; the wage disparities between mothers and fathers, parents and non-parents; and the long-term economic ramifications for mothers.
“The typical 21st century mother has two jobs: One inside the home and one outside the home,” Maloney said. “Yes, mothers bake cookies. But they also bring home the bacon.
“This Mother’s Day, let’s acknowledge the essential contribution mothers in the workforce make to the economic well-being of their families. Let’s also recognize that public policy simply has not kept pace with dramatic increase in the participation of mothers – and women in general – in the labor force.
“I hope the JEC report helps spur Congressional action to enable the 25 million mothers in the workforce to care for their families at home and at work.”
In 1975, slightly more than 34 percent of mothers with children under the age of three worked outside the home. That number has ballooned to over 62 percent today. Over the same period, the percent of mothers with children under the age of six in the labor force leapt from 39 percent to almost 65 percent.
The report also found:
• In 1975, less than one-half of mothers were in the labor force. Today, that share has grown to more than two-thirds.
• Mothers collectively earned $960 billion dollars for their families in 2013.
• In the typical family with a working mother, a mother contributes nearly 40 percent to her household’s income. In the poorest families, mothers contribute 86 percent of the total income.
• One in three mothers working outside the home is their family’s only wage earner.
• Fewer than one in five families currently fit the 1950s stereotype of a father going to work and a mother staying at home.
• Mothers in the workforce pay a financial penalty, earning 3 percent less than women without children, while fathers in the workforce receive a bonus, earning 15 percent more than men without children.
###
WASHINGTON – Joint Economic Committee (JEC) Ranking Member Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) addressed the Color of Wealth Summit Thursday, which sought to engage the public about the racial wealth gap, its effect on households of color, its impact on the economy, and solutions for closing the gap. The Center for Global Policy Solutions sponsored the event.
Following is text of her speech, as prepared for delivery:
My most sincere thanks to Maya Rockeymoore, the president and CEO of the Center for Global Policy Solutions. And to Henry Ramos, the President and CEO of the Insight Center for Community Economic Development for organizing this important event.
And thanks to all of you – for taking time out of your busy lives to be here, and for the insights and energy you bring to an issue that affects us all.
Today I bring you some good news and some bad news. Let me get the bad news out of the way first. The bad news is that you are absolutely right - Income inequality is a growing problem in the United States. And new research by the Joint Economic Committee shows that beyond question – that’s the case. And our data reveals that this problem has been growing for more than three decades - and it’s now near a record high.
And, that’s not good for anyone – rich or poor – black or white. Extreme inequality is corrosive. It hurts families; it weakens our economy; and it weakens our democracy. It affects how we think of ourselves as a nation, and diminishes our standing in the court of world opinion.
But many Americans don’t experience stark inequality in their daily lives. And many policymakers choose to ignore it. But careful study of economic data can help provide vivid insight into complex issues.
As the Ranking Democrat on the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, I have the privilege of being able to direct studies of critically important economic issues.
Recently, working in cooperation with my colleagues at the Congressional Black Caucus and CBC Chairman G.K. Butterfield, I instructed the Democratic staff of the JEC to investigate the economic challenges facing the black community.
The numbers we found are pretty shocking:
There is nothing good to say about these numbers – they paint a disturbing picture of the status of black Americans.
But carefully researching and internalizing numbers like these can yield an immensely positive result – they can inspire us to action. Even those who loathe government will have a difficult time facing these statistics and be content with doing – nothing. And that is why we must make sure that every American knows these numbers and understands them.
The good news is there are things that can be done to make the situation better. Practical policies that we can do right now to start the process of change. I’ll give you my top four:
First and foremost, we should increase the shrinking Minimum Wage.
Bills to increase the minimum wage are being introduced in the House and Senate today. I am a proud co-sponsor of Congressman Bobby Scott’s bill to raise the minimum wage. In fact, the minimum wage is worth far less today than it was almost fifty years ago. In 1968, someone earning the minimum wage and working full-time year-round earned the equivalent of $22,700 today. It’s not much to live on.
But today – that same full time, year-round worker makes just over $15,000. That is almost $8,500 below the poverty line for a family of four. By other measures, the United States is the most prosperous country in the world. No American who works full time, year-round should have to live in poverty.
Simply restoring the hourly minimum wage to what it was worth in 1968 - would mean an additional $7,600 annually to full-time minimum wage workers. I urge Congress to pass the new bills by Senator Patty Murray and Congressman Bobby Scott to increase the minimum wage.
Second, we should expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, which provides poorer families with greater economic incentive to work hard and earn more. The EITC has been proven to be both practical and effective – and in 2013 it lifted about 6.2 million people out of poverty.
Third, we should make sure every American has access to a quality education – from pre-school to college. Members on both sides of the aisle say that education is the key to success in America – let’s act like we mean it! We should expand early childhood education, restore cuts to Pell Grants and strengthen the role of community colleges.
And fourth, we should also get serious about passing some of the bipartisan bills that address problems in our criminal justice system. The Smarter Sentencing Act would be a great place to start.
The majority of Americans support these ideas. These are not pie in sky notions. They are practical – achievable – affordable. The fact sheets that the Center for Global Policy Solutions have been putting out on the Wealth Gap are a tremendous resource – and I applaud them for their work.
Because nothing will get done until policymakers truly grasp the scope of the problems we face. And that is why even the most tragic statistics – like one in your fact sheets and those in our recent JEC report on the economic status of black Americans – can lead us to a better future.
Thank you for your commitment to these issues. I urge you to focus laser-like on the numbers that reveal the scope of the problems we face, and to help make sure that all Americans know these well. Only by understanding the depth of the problem can we begin to fashion a solution.
Thank you.
###
WASHINGTON – Joint Economic Committee (JEC) Democrat Ranking Member Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) issued the following statement today on the Raise the Wage Act, for which she is an original co-sponsor. The measure, introduced today in the United States House of Representatives by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) would raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020.
“For decades, the real value of the minimum wage has been shrinking because of inflation. The minimum wage is worth LESS today than it was almost 50 years ago. And it’s not pennies – it is worth $3.64 cents less per hour in today’s dollars.
"That's why it is so important to pass the Raise the Wage Act.
“In 1968, the annual income of a full-time minimum wage worker, measured in today’s dollars, was $22,600 -- it’s a huge stretch for a family to survive even on that amount. But the annual income of a full-time minimum wage worker has dropped to $15,080. It is impossible to support a family on that salary. In a country as wealthy as ours, that’s an embarrassment.
“Polling clearly shows that the American people solidly support an increase in the minimum wage. I urge my colleagues in Congress to listen and to pass the bill.
WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) today released the following statement on the Republican budget resolution:
“This is a budget that our economy cannot afford. People will lose their jobs. People will lose their health care. People will lose college aid. It is wrong for our country.
“The budget actually increases taxes on typical working families by $2,000. It cuts Medicare by $431 billion over 10 years, and Medicaid by half a trillion. It cuts agriculture programs by $300 billion, much of which likely will come out of food assistance programs that help working families afford to eat.
“The GOP budget snatches health care away from 16 million Americans and disinvests in education, reducing college Pell grants by $85 billion, making college even more unaffordable. It denies immigration reform and guts funding for infrastructure, slashing it by $235 billion over 10 years.
“And even with all of these damaging cuts, it still doesn’t balance the budget, as the other side claims. It’s a fundamentally dishonest document. Our economy cannot afford it.”
###
WASHINGTON – Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Ranking Member of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC), Wednesday released State Economic Snapshots, a report that contains data on the status of the economic recovery in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Among other findings, the report shows that unemployment rates declined in almost half of all states in March, while 18 states experienced private-sector job gains over the same period. In the past 12 months, 49 states and the District of Columbia gained private-sector jobs; 41 states and the District of Columbia saw an increase in average weekly earnings.
While the economic conditions of some states have improved more quickly than others, every state’s economic outlook has improved since the 2008 recession.
“The national economy has improved substantially since the recession, but we have to remember that not all parts of the country have experienced the full benefits of the recovery,” Maloney said. “This state data gives us some reasons to celebrate, but it also reminds us that there is more work to be done. We must continue to pursue policies that help ensure that all Americans can prosper.”
The report finds that:
###
Half a century later, Nelson Mandela is considered South Africa's founding father of Democracy; only two of the four Beatles are still living; and a typical woman earns just 78 cents for every dollar earned by a man.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. But closing the gender pay gap is more important than ever.
The participation of women in the economy has grown enormously over the past five decades: Half of all jobs are now held by women, compared to just a third of jobs in 1963, and 70% of women with children under 18 now work outside the home. That means the economic security of American families is increasingly dependent on women's earnings. The gender wage gap, it turns out, is not just a women's issue — it's a family issue, affecting the well-being of every family member, and not just today but far into the future.
A new report by the Joint Economic Committee Democratic staff breaks down the extent to which families rely on women's wages. The report finds that fully two-thirds of families rely on a mother's income. Working mothers generally contribute 40% of the household income, and women's earnings account for more than half the household income among 38% of married couples. A mother is the primary wage earner in one-third of American families. Low-income families depend even more on a woman's wages.
Let's face it: This is not your mother's wage gap.
Back in 1965, when the typical woman earned 60 cents for every dollar earned by a man, fewer than half of all women in their peak earning years were in the workforce. Today, more than three-quarters of women in that age group are in the workforce.
Wage disparity begins for many women in the first year of their careers and has implications long after they stop working. Lower wages translate into decreased lifetime earnings, which negatively impacts women's financial security in retirement.
Education is one of the primary factors determining earnings, but women's wages tend to be lower than men's even when virtually everything else is equal. A 2012 study conducted by the
American Association of University Women (AAUW) compared the salaries of women and men who had gone to similar colleges, pursued the same major, and went into the same profession. This study found that one year out of school, full time working females were making 7% less than full time working males.
A number of public policies before Congress would help boost women's wages — including the Equal Rights Amendment, which I'm sponsoring in the House, the Paycheck Fairness Act, raising the minimum wage, paid family and medical leave, encouraging women to enter higher paying and historically male fields such as science, engineering, technology and math, and implementing flexible workplace policies.
Women have made significant progress in closing the wage gap since the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, but at this rate, wage parity won't be reached before 2058, according to the Institute of Women's Policy Research. It's time to pick up the pace. Or, as Jon Stewart put it, we'll have flying cars before we have equal pay.
Maloney represents parts of Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn in the U.S. Congress and is the ranking Democrat on the congressional Joint Economic Committee.
Click here to see other op-eds.
