California NOW

The Impact of the Recession on Single Mothers' Employment

Reprinted with permission from Legal Momentum.

Already High Unemployment Jumps Even Higher and More Single Mothers Reduced to Part-time Work

Single mothers have consistently experienced a far higher rate of unemployment than the population as a whole, and this pattern has continued during the economic downturn that began in December 2007. In 2007, the average monthly unemployment rate was 8.0 for single mothers compared to 4.6 for the population as a whole.1 In 2009, the unemployment rate was 13.6 for single mothers compared to 9.3 for the population as a whole. The single mother unemployment rate may have grown even higher than 13.6 in 2010.

Although the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will not publish the single mother unemployment statistic until the year is over, BLS does publish on a monthly basis the unemployment rate for “women who maintain families,” about two-thirds of whom are single mothers.2 The average monthly unemployment rate for women who maintain families was 11.9 in the first seven months of 2010, compared to 11.5 in 2009.3

The economic downturn has also led to an increase in the fraction of employed single mothers who work only part-time from 18% in 2007 to 22% in 2009.

1 The single mother data cited here are the data for women with own children under 18 years with no spouse present reported in Table 5 of the annual Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publication “Employment Characteristics of Families in (year)."

Total population unemployment rates are from the BLS table “Employment status of the civilian noninstitutional population, 1940 to date."

2 “Women who maintain families” include all women who rent or own a house and who live with a relative other than a spouse. The relative may be a parent or sibling, for example, as well as a minor child.

3 Unemployment rate data for women who maintain families retrieved from http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/srgate using code LNU04000313.

Pushing for a Family Recovery Budget

As you know, the state budget is is desperate straits this year, with a $20 billion funding gap, and politicians seemingly more intent on drawing lines in the sand than helping California's families.

We've joined the statewide Health and Human Services Network in urging legislators to move towards compromise on a truly family-friendly budget that will utilize specific revenue increases to ensure that the budget is not balanced solely on the backs of our neediest citizens, who have already seen significant social safety net service cuts over the past few years as the economy has made these programs even more necessary.

Now we need YOU to contact state legislators and let them know that their constituents demand a realistic budget that includes revenue increases.  If you have progressive legislators, encourage them to hold strong, and if you have conservative legislators, ask them to do the right thing for their constituents and the state by supporting a budget that looks beyond ideology and party lines to help real Californians and our families!

Look up your state legislators here and call, email, and fax!
We are especially asking people to target the following Republican legislators who may be able to be swayed to help our needy families:
Senator Roy Ashburn  - Bakersfield, Bishop, Yucca Valley
Senator Dave Cogdill - San Joaquin & Fresno County
Assemblymember Anthony Adams (email) - San Bernardino, Glendora, Hesperia
Assemblymember Bill Berryhill (email) - Modesto, Stockton, Tracy
Assemblymember Connie Conway (email) - Visalia, Porterville, Bishop
Assemblymember Danny Gilmore (email) - Hanford, Bakersfield, Wasco
Assemblymember Roger Niello (email) - Sacramento, Citrus Heights
Assemblymember Cameron Smyth (email) - Santa Clarita, Ventura County
Assemblymember Michael Villines (email) - Fresno, Madera, Clovis

Talking points:

• In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) funding creates thousands of jobs for care providers, and helps our state's disabled and elderly populations.
• Child-care programs like CalWORKS create two jobs for every position - one for the parent who can only be employed with adequate child care, and one for the child care provider - cuts to this program could lose the state up to 430,000 working adults.
• California is the only oil-producing state that does not tax oil extraction - even conservative states like Texas and Alaska tax oil companies to remove oil, which is a public resource and should provide a public benefit.  Adding an oil extraction tax could bring in $1 billion.
• California must delay the $2 billion in corporate tax cuts that were passed last year, we can't afford to give away state money when our budget faces a $20 billion shortfall.
• We must close the loopholes that allow corporations to avoid property tax reassessment when properties are sold.  Prop. 13 was meant to help homeowners, not plump up corporate profits!
• The income tax bracket for highest earners established by Republican Governor Pete Wilson should be temporarily reinstated while the state is in financial crisis. We cannot balance the budget solely on the back of those in poverty!

Probing the Pecking Order: Equal Opportunity as an Inalienable Right

Education and Economics

Latest Census statistics show that the gap between men's and women's earnings widened slightly between 2007 and 2008, from 77.8 (generally rounded to 78 percent) to 77 percent. Based on the median earnings of full-time, year-round workers, women's earnings were $35,745 and men's earnings were $46,367. Median earnings for most women of color are even lower. In 2008, the earnings for African American women were $31,489, 67.9 percent of men's earnings (a drop from 68.7 percent in 2007), and Latinas' earnings were $26,846, 58 percent of men's earnings (a drop from 59 percent in 2007). Asian American women's earnings in 2008 were $42,215 -- 91 percent of men's earnings, an increase from 89.5 percent in 2007.

In 2003, women's earnings were 76% of men's, down from 77% in 2002, $30,724, compared to $40,668 for men. The last time before this that the female-to-male earnings ratio declined was 1998-99. http://www.pay-equity.org/

On an hourly basis, women with a four-year college degree earned about 80 percent more than women with only a high school degree in 2001

Women's achievements in higher education during the past three decades are considered to be partly responsible for narrowing the wage gap. At every education level, however, women continue to earn less than similarly educated men.

A typical college-educated woman working full time earns $44,200 a year compared to $61,800 for college-educated male workers--a difference of $17,600!

In 2001, women accounted for 48% of the labor force, but 59% of workers making less than $8 an hour. http://www.equalrights.org/publications/fact_sheets/paystats.asp

Among undergraduates, 56 percent of the student body in 2000 were women, up from 42 percent in 1970. The proportion of women graduate students grew from 39 percent to 58 percent during this period.

The most dramatic change occurred in professional programs such as medicine, law, and business, where the proportion of women shot up from 9 percent in 1970 to 47 percent in 2000.

Women now earn more than 60 percent of undergraduate degrees in biology and nearly half of undergraduate degrees in mathematics (47 percent).

Women are still underrepresented in many science and engineering fields. Men still earn most of the bachelor's degrees in engineering (79 percent) and computer science (72 percent).
www.aauw.org

Racism
Median earnings for women of color continue to be lower, in general, than earnings for men as a whole. In 2003, the earnings for African American women were $26,989, 66% of men's earnings (down from 68% last year); Latinas at $22,363, 55% of men's earnings (down from 56% last year); and Asian American women at $32,446, 80% of men's earnings (wage gap remained the same). http://www.pay-equity.org/

The typical African American family had 60% as much income as a typical White family in 1958, but only 58% as much in 2002.

Black unemployment is more than twice the rate for Whites - a greater gap than in 1972. One in nine African Americans cannot find a job.

White households had an average net worth of $468,200 in 2001 - more than 6 times the $75,700 average net worth of Black households.

At the slow rate that the Black-White poverty gap has been narrowing since 1968, it would take 150 years (i.e., until the year 2152) to close the gap.

African-Americans make up almost half of the prison population, yet African Americans make up only 12% of the population within the United States. www.naacp.org

State Budget Stalemate May Drag on Until 2011

Well, it looks like the annual state budget stalemate is worse this year than ever, with Governor Schwarzenegger refusing to sign any budget that doesn't contain budget and pension restrictions with long-term effects, and Democrats insisting on new revenue increases. Schwarzenegger has stated that he will not sign a budget that does not contain his demands, and would be willing to stretch the budget crisis out until the next Governor takes office in January. Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg reacted by stating that unless the budget repeals recent corporate tax cuts, the legislature will also wait until the next Governor takes office. One thing these two rivals can agree on, is that California needs additional federal funding. Steinberg and Schwarzenegger traveled to D.C. to push for additional funds for the state through an extension of the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund among other measures.

Governor Schwarzenegger's approval rating has dropped to 22%, the same as Gray Davis when voters recalled him in 2003 and elected Schwarzenegger. Davis and Schwarzenegger have both been victims of the state's unsustainable structure, but despite the clear fact that the 2/3 vote currently needed to pass a budget is unworkable, Schwarzenegger has come out as opposing Prop. 25, which would solve this problem by mandating a simple majority for budget passage.  No wonder former state legislator Hannah-Beth Jackson has declared that the state is ungovernable regardless of who wins the Governor's seat in November.

The state's budget deficit of $20 billion is growing daily, and the state will run out of money by October unless a budget is passed. State Controller John Chiang would begin issuing IOUs by as early as August to save the state's cash for bills mandated by the state Constitution and federal law.  With such measures, California's worst-in-the-nation credit rating would likely be even further downgraded, possibly as far as "junk" status, making it even harder for the state to raise funds.

What can we as citizens do? Support reforms to change the state's ungovernable system, remind your state legislators, and the leadership of both parties, that we need a state budget that works for California families, without cutting severely needed services to our most vulnerable populations.  Tell Governor  Schwarzenegger not to leave a legacy of an even greater financial crisis for the state by refusing to sign a budget.

Speaker of the Assembly, John A. Pérez
Assembly Majority Floor Leader, Charles Calderon
Assembly Minority Floor Leader, Martin Garrick
Senate President Pro Tempore, Darrell Steinberg
Senate Majority Leader, Dean Florez
Senate Minority Leader, Dennis Hollingsworth

The Myth of the First World: The Truth About Women and Children in Poverty in America

Homelessness and Families:
Families with children are among the fastest growing segments of the homeless population.
Percent of the homeless population made up of families: 40%
Percent of the homeless population made up of children: 39%
Families, single mothers, and children make up the largest group of people who are homeless in rural areas.
Percent of the urban homeless population that is children: 25.3%
Percent of the urban homeless population that is unaccompanied minors: 4%
Homeless children are twice as likely to experience hunger, and four times as likely to have delayed development.
Almost half of children in shelter are under the age of five.
Average shelter stay for a homeless family in the 1990’s: 5 months
Current average shelter stay for a homeless family: 1 year
Percent that requests for emergency shelter by families increased between 1999-2000: 17%
Percent of shelter requests by homeless families denied due to lack of resources: 27%
Percent of formerly homeless families who received subsidized housing and stayed stably housed: 80%
Percent of formerly homeless families who did not receive subsidized housing and stayed stably housed: 18%
Percent of homeless families who had their welfare benefits reduced or cut in the last year: 37%
Percent who said they became homeless as a direct result: 20%
Percent of families who had stopped receiving welfare in the last six months who doubled-up on housing to save money: 25%
Percent of families who had stopped receiving welfare in the last six months who moved because they could not pay rent: 23%

Homelessness and Domestic Violence:
Percent of homeless women and children who are fleeing abuse: 50%
Percent of cities that identified domestic violence as a primary cause of homelessness: 56%
Percent of welfare recipients that have experienced domestic violence: 50-60%

It's Not About Spare Change, It's About Real Change

I knew the statistics.

The average woman's household income drops 27% after a divorce. The average man's household income rises by 10%.

I knew the statistics, but they didn't prepare me for the reality.

They didn't prepare me for desperately digging for change to deposit at the bank so that I could make sure a check wouldn't bounce. They didn't prepare me for washing my daughter's clothes in the bathtub and hanging them to dry in the backyard because I didn't have two dollars for the washer and dryer.  They didn't prepare me to choose between doing those things and breaking a promise to my daughter that cost us our last five dollars.

Here's the thing about being a parent: I will choose her every time. 

I will lift couch cushions, and dig through coat pockets and unused bags, and  decide that I don't really need to keep that lucky dollar coin I've been holding on to for years. I will wash laundry in the tub, and pack homemade lunches and snacks, and only buy new clothes or shoes for myself when the old ones are so full of holes that I can't repair them anymore. I will eat plain pasta with squash and tomatoes from the garden for meal after meal after meal, and I will ask the vendors at the farmer's market if I can have their bruised fruit, and I will find new and exciting things to do with beans and rice. I will scrimp, and save, and sacrifice.

And it will be worth it.

It will be worth it, because it keeps my daughter with me, and it keeps her fed, and housed, and clothed, and happy.

It will be worth it, but that doesn't mean it will be right, or fair, or just.

It is not right that there are millions of families in our country in much worse financial situations than mine all across the country. It isn't fair that part-time childcare costs 1/7 of my monthly income, and full-time would cost 1/4 of it. It isn't just that we can't provide decent paid family leave or sick leave for everyone in our country.

It isn't right that our drop in unemployment numbers is due to a larger number of discouraged job hunters, who have given up looking.  It's not fair that Congress does not intend to extend jobless benefits, throwing millions more families into poverty. It isn't just that California's proposed budget still relies on cuts to needed social safety net programs rather than revenue increases.

And that's why I'm here, and why I do this work. Why I keep doing this work.

Because someone needs to say, "This is not right. This is not fair. This is not just."

Because it isn't about me, and my desperate search for quarters. It isn't even about the millions of families scraping by below the poverty line, or losing their homes to foreclosure, or unable to afford food for their children.

It's about us. It's about what kind of state and country we want to live in and build.  It's about what kind of world we want to bring into being.

I hope you'll join me in working towards a state, a nation, and a world that are more right, more fair, and more just.

Contact Congress about extending Unemployment benefits.
Contact your California state legislators about a family-friendly state budget. 
Attend family recovery budget events.
Ask your Senators to support the Paycheck Fairness Act.

Impact of Federal and State Budgets on Women

· 90% of adult welfare recipients are women. (Source)

· Government cuts in social spending disproportionately affect single mothers or female heads-of-households. (Source)

· Many of the women forced off welfare by the time limits imposed by TANF are worse off than before. (Source)

· Since roads are often prioritized over public transit systems, poor women have difficulty accessing transportation for work, childcare and other needs. (Source)

· Welfare-to-work programs have failed to provide economic security for poor women and they have in many cases left women worse off both financially and in terms of their self-esteem. (Source)

· Many welfare recipients are pressured into low-wage and contingent work that is highly precarious. (Source)

· The lack of services for the working poor, including low cost housing, childcare and healthcare further propel women into poverty. (Source)

· The way government benefits are distributed is detrimental to women’s self-worth and self-sufficiency. Many women have been lied to, insulted and verbally attacked. (Source)

· The system often sees women as trying to get away with something, and intrudes in women’s financial and personal lives. The constant monitoring of poor women is not efficient or cost effective given the low real level of fraud. (Source)

· Job training programs tend to offer little assistance and point poor women to minimum wage jobs. Women have had to find educational and career opportunities on their own and create their own networks. (Source)

· Welfare policies inherently reflect how women’s work is regarded politically and economically. Reducing grants and requiring that recipients obtain low-wage, dead-end jobs despite of a lack of safe, affordable childcare encourages an economic system that pays women much less than men and does not value the unpaid work of caring for families. (Source)

· With the advent of welfare reform, “work first” requirements, and grant reductions, large numbers of women searching for jobs have been flooding the labor market. This surplus labor drives low wages further down, thus decreasing the opportunities for women to earn a living wage. (Source)

Facts on Women and Economic Independence

· Women hold 13.6% of board seats at Fortune 500 companies. Women of color hold only 3.0%. (Catalyst, 2003)

In 2002, women held 15.7% of corporate officer positions in the Fortune 500, up from 12.5% in 2000. Women of color represent 1.6% of corporate officers. Women hold 7.9% of the highest corporate officer titles, represent 5.2% of top earners, and lead only six of the Fortune 500 companies. (Catalyst, 2002)

· Women business owners are critically important to the American economy. America’s 9.1 million women-owned businesses employ 27.5 million people and contribute $3.6 trillion to the economy. (U.S. Small Business Administration)

· Women constitute only 13 percent of the top executives and 9 percent of the boards of directors of the nation's leading media, telecom and e-commerce companies. (Annenberg Public Policy Center, 2001)

· While education reduces the likelihood of being poor, women in the U.S. are much more likely to be poor than men with the same level of education. (Source)

· Only 27% of businesses in California are woman-owned. (Source)

· As of 2002, women in California earned 80.7% of what men in California earned. (Source)

· For every $1.00 the average man earned in the U.S. in 1997, white women earned 75 cents; black women 67 cents; Latina women 53.9 cents; and Asian Pacific American women earned 80 cents. (Source)

· Many women have the double burden of being responsible for both wage earning and being the primary caretaker – making it increasingly difficult to hold down a higher-wage, full-time job since work/life balance is rarely a consideration of employers. (Source)

· Women have less chance of benefiting from gainful employment because of their exclusive responsibility for child rearing, the generally accepted idea of their gainful activities as an “aid” to their men and their concentration in the unregulated sector. (Source)

· When women have earnings, it is more difficult for them to ensure that these afford them decision making capacity or enable them to choose what their earnings are spent on due often to the social rules and levels of independence that affect their capacity to speak out when decisions are being made at all levels.(Source)

· When women make decisions, they often do not improve their own welfare but generally decide in line with general “family” well being. (Source)

State Budget: Overdue and Underfunded

Here we are, at the beginning of California's new fiscal year, and once again our state has no budget. Only six times in the past 25 years has California managed to meet the constitutionally mandated budget deadline. And once again, our lack of a budget is making the state's economic situation worse than ever, costing us $52 million each day.

The Governor has addressed this by instructing State Controller John Chiang to pay state employees the minimum federal wage of $7.25/hour until a budget is signed, although Chiang has brought a legal challenge and is likely to refuse to institute the pay reduction. Salaries of elected officials and their staffs will not be paid until a budget is in place, and payments to vendors will be suspended, as will some payments to local governments and schools.  Needless to say, this sudden stoppage of money will do nothing but worsen the state's economic distress. Small vendors who rely on state contracts will be unable to pay employees, and in the current climate of tightened lending may be unable to get the loans necessary to keep their doors open.

One small bit of good news is that Democratic leaders from the State Senate and State Assembly have agreed on a budget proposal to close the state's $19 billion budget gap.  The proposal includes adding a $1 billion tax on oil extraction (California is currently the only oil-producing state without such a tax), delaying $2 billion in corporate tax cuts, and possibly extending the 2009 tax increases on income and vehicles that were set to expire in 2011.  This proposal would maintain funding for Medi-Cal, In-Home Supportive Services and the welfare-to-work program, bringing in significant federal matching dollars to the state.

Of course, no budget agreement that relies on any revenue increases can move forward without significant support from Republican legislators. As legislators return to their home districts for the summer recess, the "big five" - leaders of both parties in the Assembly and Senate, and the Governor - remain behind to continue negotiations toward a budget compromise. Now is the time to remind your state legislators, and the leadership of both parties, that we need a state budget that works for California families, without cutting severely needed services to our most vulnerable populations. 

Find your state legislators.
Speaker of the Assembly, John A. Pérez
Assembly Majority Floor Leader, Charles Calderon
Assembly Minority Floor Leader, Martin Garrick
Senate President Pro Tempore, Darrell Steinberg
Senate Majority Leader, Dean Florez
Senate Minority Leader, Dennis Hollingsworth
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

Facts on Women in Poverty

· According to the 2004 Census there are 14.3 million women living in poverty in the United States – increased for the 4th consecutive year since 2000. (Source)

· Of the 1.5 billion people in the world living on less than $1 per day, the majority are women. (Source)

· As of 2004, a woman in the United States was 40% more likely to be poor than a man. (Source)

· There has been a large gender poverty gap in the U.S. every year since the official poverty standard was created in the 1960’s. (Source)

· 34.3% of single women with children nationwide are living in poverty compared to 4.9% of married couples, 13.6% of single males and 26.5% of single females. (Source)

· Two-thirds of all poor adults in the U.S. are women. (Source)

· According to a report released in August 2005, one 1 out of every 8 women in the U.S. was poor, compared to 1 out of every 11 men. (Source)

· Aged women in the U.S. are 70 percent more likely to be poor than aged men. (Source)

· In the U.S., women who worked outside the home were 30% more likely to be poor than men who worked outside the home in 2004. (Source)

· About 1 out of every 14 working women is poor compared to one out of every nineteen working men. (Source)

· 90% of adult welfare recipients are women. (Source)

· The 35.9% poverty rate for single mother families in 2004 was over twice the 17.2% rate for single father families. (Source)