Washington, D.C. – Representative Carolyn Maloney, Chair of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC) and a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, today applauded the Administration’s newly-released report, “Jobs and Economic Security for America’s Women,” prepared by the National Economic Council (NEC).

“Women’s economic equity and success are integral to getting our economy thriving again,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney.  “As this White House report and previous reports from the Joint Economic Committee have pointed out, we still have significant challenges.”

Trends driving women’s increasing influence in the economy that both the JEC and NEC highlight include:

• Women are a growing share of the workforce, and their earnings are crucial for families’ economic well-being.  Women are either co-breadwinners or primary breadwinners in nearly two-thirds of American families.
• While women have lost jobs and seen their earnings fall during this recession, women’s work has become more important than ever because men’s unemployment has risen even more sharply.  Working wives are the sole breadwinner for millions of families across the nation.

Despite women’s importance to the economy as a whole and to their families’ economic security, serious challenges remain for working women.  As a recent GAO report requested by Maloney demonstrates, the wage gap persists even at the highest levels of the economy – female managers earn just 81 cents for every dollar earned by their male peers, and that gap is even larger for Manager Moms.

Maloney said, “A persistent gender wage gap means that families pay a price.  Add in that working women bear the significant burden of balancing work and family and one can see how we still have a long way to go to unleash women’s full economic potential.”

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The Joint Economic Committee, established under the Employment Act of 1946, was created by Congress to review economic conditions and to analyze the effectiveness of economic policy.
 www.jec.senate.gov