Mothers are Primary Breadwinners  -- besides everything else they do! 

Are you a mother of children under 18 and also earning a paycheck?  Feeling tired, overworked, stressed?  You are not alone.  In almost half of all households with children (40%), mothers have become the primary breadwinners.  A May, 2014, study from Pew Research Center reports that mothers-of-families-with-children-at-home not only care for them as mothers always have but many more now bring in most of the "bacon".  In 1960, only 11 percent of households had a mother who was the major breadwinner.

Who are these breadwinners?  First and foremost, they are women.  What do we know about women who bring home paychecks?

For starters, we know that, for every dollar her male counterpart earns, a woman earns 77 cents.  Black women earn only 64 cents and Hispanic women, 54 cents on the dollar.

We know that two-thirds of all workers who are paid the minimum wage or less in 2013 are women, and 60 percent of full-time minimum-wage workers are women.

We know that 22 percent of minimum-wage workers are women of color compared to less than 16 percent of workers overall.

We know that more than three-quarters of women earning a minimum wage are age 20 or older, and most do not have a spouse to rely on.

So I ask myself:  How many of those mothers who are primary breadwinners, keeping their families afloat financially, earn $7.25 an hour, the current minimum wage?  If she is earning that amount, working full-time and year-round, she is bringing home $14,500 annually.  If she is earning only that amount, she is earning more than $4,000 below the poverty line for a mother with two children!

We have a problem.  This is a problem for all women working outside the home but particularly for women earning minimum wage.

Who are these women?  They prepare food and serve us in restaurants, they take our orders in fast food eateries; they wait on us in retail stores; they stock products in large chain stores; they assist and provide services in personal care; they are our building/grounds cleaning and maintenance people; they are the support for various office and administration, for healthcare and protective services, etc.

How can we help them?

1. Low-wage working women deserve a raise.  Within the last 30 years, the minimum wage has increased only three times.  If it had kept pace with inflation since 1968, it would now be almost $10.80 per hour.  The minimum for tipped employees is $2.13 which hasn't been changed in 20 years; it is one-third that of the federal minimum wage.  Not only that but restaurant servers (largest group of tipped employees) experience poverty at nearly three times the rate of the workforce as a whole.  And who makes up 70 percent of servers?  You guessed it -- women.
2. Increasing the minimum wage would boost wages for millions of working women and help close the wage gap.  If the minimum wage were increased to $10.10 per hour, it would boost her annual earnings by $5,700 to a total $20,200, and pull her family of three out of poverty.  If the minimum were gradually increased to $10.10 per hour by 2016, almost 30 million workers would receive a raise.  Of those almost-30 million workers, over 7 million are parents.  That includes almost 5 million working mothers which is 22 percent of all working mothers with children under 18.  Since the majority of minimum-wage earners are women, increasing the minimum wage could close the wage gap by 5 percent. 
3. Raising the minimum wage would strengthen the economy.  Raising the minimum wage lowers turnover, boosts worker efforts, and encourages employers to invest in their workers.  Most of these workers need the income and spend it quickly, boosting the economy.  For every $1 added to the minimum wage, those households spend an additional $2,800 the following year.  Raising minimum wage does not cause job loss, even during periods of recession.  In fact, the opposite is true:  Raising minimum wage to $10.10 per hour would generate $22 billion in additional economic activity and around 85,000 jobs, estimates Economic Policy Institute.

 We can contact our legislators to help solve this problem.   Urge them to pass The Fair Minimum Wage Act (H.R. 1010/S.460) and the Minimum Wage Fairness Act (S.1737).  Think of those minimum-wage workers you know (particularly women) who may very likely be living now below the poverty level.  By implementing the Fair Minimum Wage Act, 4.6 million non-elderly Americans would see their incomes rise above the poverty line.  And that includes 2.8 million women and girls!

(Sources:  Huff Post, "Working Mothers Now Top Earners in 40 Percent of Households with Children: Pew", Hope Yen, May 15, 2014; National Women's Law Center, "Fair Pay for Women Requires Increasing the Minimum Wage and Tipped Minimum Wage", March 28, 2014; Pew Research Center, "Who Makes Minimum Wage", Drew Desilver, July 19, 2013)

A DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT  

4:00am:  Roll out of bed.  Let out the dogs.  Can't sleep any longer.  A late nap the previous day screws up my sleeping pattern.  Try another hour of sleep but doesn't help much.  It's been a long weekend of writing -- mainly creating a new "Old Wild West" blog.  With experimenting, trying and re-trying, I finally get my first image posted.  Also research and write a post for the "Running Blue in a Red State" blog.

5:30am:  Take a shower and get dressed.  Cut up fruit for breakfast. 

6:30am:  Begin physical therapy exercises -- about a 43-minute routine.  My email includes a message from my walking friend.  "Do you want to walk on snow?" she asks.  I look out the window, no snow.  Respond that I'm out the door.  That's when I feel the almost-invisible flakes on my face -- too light to see or stick.

7:30am:  Our 30-minute walk is cold since neither of us has bundled up very well.  We don't walk as far.  I'm having some problems with knee pain; my new exercise routine of walking as fast as I can as far as I can seems to be a little too much too quickly.  I come back inside after walking -- it feels good.  Warmer but I'm also feeling invigorated.

8:30am:  Review and return emails.  Check to see if today is the deadline for sending in my "Candidate Finance Report" required by the state.  Haven't solicited for fund-raising and haven't spent any money on my campaign.  Won't be much of a report.  Looks like I have several more weeks before the deadline -- thank goodness.  Something I can put off for another day.

9:30am:  I take another step today towards a "Weekend Room at the Nunnery".  Come up with the idea in February to move my bedroom downstairs to the finished basement and use the upstairs bedroom for guests.  It will be available on weekends for history buffs mainly.  My house is built in 1920 and, during the late 1930's and 1940's, is the nunnery for St. Benedict's Catholic School next door.  The School is closed in 1950 and is later bought by the community to house the present-day Musselshell Valley Historical Museum.

By renting this room on weekends, I can share my historical interest in the Old Wild West not just with writing but also in guiding others through the Museum next door and on possibly guiding more local, historical tours.  I'm expecting this idea will meet several goals I had set for myself in January -- making hay while the sun shines while I'm still young(ish)and energetic(ish), making more friends and connections.

The move downstairs is still in transition.  Today I gather odds and ends from both the upper bedroom and bath and reorganize my lower bedroom to make space for it all.  Go to our local hardware for ideas on how to add shelf to a closet.  End up recycling a piece of webbing for the purpose.

12:00 noon:  Break for lunch.  My motor is running down -- good time to catch some shut-eye.

2:00pm:  The dogs are ready for their daily walk; the little ones around our town block and the medium one around several blocks.  Still chilly so we don't dawdle.

2:30pm:  While I begin preparing for our evening meal, I consider several opitons for a major thrust in my campaign.  My focus is on getting out the vote and on discussing issues with women.  I had considered earlier in April creating a bipartisan effort to get out the vote, even for the primary in June.  The primary is for two Republicans -- the incumbent who lives in town and the newcomer who lives close to Billings.  Maybe, I thought, the effort would not only help Tom, the incumbent, but also help myself become more known in the community since I've lived here just two years.  After the primary, it would be each on our own but still working to get out the vote.  Two knowledgeable friends, one Democrat and the other Republican, in Billings discourage my idea.

This morning, however, I receive an email from the Republican friend.  He tells me the incumbent is moderate (which is what I'd expected) and the newcomer is the Tea Party.  He suggests I do what I can to help the incumbent.  Of course he does.  My next step is to contact the Democratic contact for the state and get feedback.  Does it make sense to create a bipartisan effort for getting out the vote when there is less than a month to do it anyway?  And which is better for Democrats:  for a moderate Republican to win the primary or for a Tea Party to win?  If I am in a non-competitive race (as has been described to me by the state Dems), wouldn't it be better for the moderate-Republican incumbent to win rather than the extreme Tea Party?  Wouldn't it be helpful to create a bipartisan effort with the moderate Republican? 

5:00pm:  Eat dinner and feed dogs.  Prepare for a "Friends of the Library" meeting tonight at the Community Library.

6:30pm:  Arrive early for the meeting.  I walk in and see several tables to my left with workers sitting behind them.  When I ask what is happening, I'm reminded that people are voting -- for members of the School Board.  Voting??  Where have I been??  "You're a candidate for office and you don't remember to vote?" asks one of the FOL members.  I rush over and vote (luckily my walking friend had let me know which two of the three names would be most helpful on the Board).  On my return to our meeting, another member tells me that the Tea Party candidate has been in town the evening before holding a meeting.  Where have I been?? I ask myself.  I would like to hear what he has to say and how he explains himself.

It is now morning the next day.  The friend who mows my lawn finishes and knocks at my door.  While I write out my check, he tells me the Republican incumbent visits the Senior Center (basement of Museum) during lunch the previous day.  Where have I been?  A day late and a dollar short!  (Maybe I should just go back to bed...)

Equal Pay?  Is Flexibility an Answer?  

"By the time the average woman is 60 years old, she will have made $450,000 less than a man in the same exact position."  For a black woman, it would be $440,023 less and for a Latina, $459,977 less.  "That's like a fancy-ass house!" exclaims Laci Green in "Why I'm a...Feminist" YouTube video.

Is equal pay for equal work really a problem?  "Well, no," respond Republicans.  "Paychecks vary because of the occupations women hold.  If a woman is a teacher, it won't bring in the same paycheck as an engineer might bring.  So the problem is in the kind of occupations women choose compared to the occupations men choose."  (Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?  Do women get paid less because the job pays less, or do women get paid less because it is traditionally women doing the job?)

Claire Cain Miller, in her April 23,2014, article entitled "Pay Gap is Because of Gender, Not Jobs" finds that the disparity in pay doesn't happen as much between occupations as it happens within the same type of occupation.  In reality, if pay disparity were greatest between types of jobs, women would "erase just 15 percent of the pay gap for all workers and between 30 and 35 percent for college graduates".  One must look within particular occupations to see what's truly happening with pay disparity.

Fact #1 -- The pay gap "widens in the highest paying occupations, like business, law and medicine".  For example, female podiatrists are paid just 66 percent of what male podiatrists earn while female economists earn 82 percent of what their male counterparts earn.

Some occupations, however, have been able to narrow the gap.  Female computer software engineers make 88 percent compared to men while female pharmacists earn 91 percent of what men earn.  And in some occupations like dental hygienists, H. R. specialists, and advertising sales people, the gap has disappeared altogether.

So what is happening within, rather than between, occupations that allows for more equitable pay?

Fact #2 -- The key to equalizing pay is "workplace flexibility in terms of hours and location".  For example, some occupations value long hours, face-time at the office, and being on call.  So if one works longer hours, puts in more face-time, or is on call, they are disproportionately rewarded with higher pay.  An example might be the difference between a corporate attorney who works 80 hours a week and another who works 40 hours as in-house counsel to a small business.  The corporate attorney gets paid more than double of what the in-house counsel is paid because of the value placed on those long hours, face-time, and being on call.  (These are aspects of the job that, more likely than not, women with families would be less willing to do.)

On the other hand, "jobs in which employees can easily substitute for one another have the slimmest pay gaps, and those workers are paid in proportion to the hours they work".  An example might be what has happened in the field of obstetrics in some locations.  Rather than the obstetrician remaining on call around the clock for a birth, a doctor already working the 8-hour shift will take the case.

Another example is pharmacies.  Because of changes in labor (more corporate ownership) and changes in technology (computerized data), pharmacists can easily substitute for one another.  Payment is made for hours worked:  those who work 80 hours get double the pay of those who work 40 hours.  As a result, there is less of a pay gap between women and men (91 percent).

In most occupations, if the flexibility exists that allows for work to be done remotely or working at odd hours (presuming this is the flexibility women are looking for), the less likely there would be for gaps in pay between women and men, both of whom are doing the same work.  (Source:  "Pay Gap is because of gender not jobs", Claire Cain Miller, April 23, 2014)

Edith's question:  Marissa Mayer has now been Yahoo's CEO for two years.  Improvements at Yahoo have been noted both in salaries and attrition rates.  However, Mayer has been criticized for not letting staff work from home, taking away that flexibility of work location.  It would be interesting to know what, if any, movement there may be now toward pay disparity.  It is also noted that Yahoo, despite its improvements, has not made Glassdoor's separate list of "50 best places to work".  (Source:  "Yahoo says Marissa Mayer has fixed its biggest problem", John Duling, @jmcduling, March 5, 2014)