Thursday Thoughts

Good morning. Grace and Peace be unto you!

Women and Economics
While reading a blog post from Women of Color Achieve,  about women and our economy I stumble upon these statistics. These statistics are what keep working women from moving ahead. It is hard to catch up when you are already so far behind.

•  In 2014, women accounted for 47% of all workers over the age of 16: 70% White, 13% Hispanic, 12% black, 5% Asian.
• The top category of employment for women was the Management/Professional related occupation, representing 42% of all women, followed by Sales Related careers at 30%. Service came in third at 21%, Manufacturing& Transportation at 5.5% and Nature/Construction/Maintenance <1%.
•  Asian women make up 49% of the management/professional category, also the highest paid career category for women.
•  Black Women & Hispanic Women over index in the lowest paying career category (Service $461/week) and Under index in the highest paid (Professional/Management $981/week). The delta in median wage between these two categories is a whopping $520/week.
• Hispanic women lead in participation in Sales & Administrative careers
• Black women also show strong participation in the Sales & Administrative career group which speaks to an entrepreneurial nature said to be found in this ethnic group.
• Black women lead in participation in Service related careers, the lowest weekly wage job group
• Nature/Construction/Maintenance job group, a very close 3rd highest paying category for men, has a significant wage gap difference between men and women. This could be another category for economic improvement for women if the wage gap was removed. Women are barely represented in this category (<1%).
• Asians only make- up 5% of the female workforce over 16 years of age in the US, but have highest median weekly earning ($902) followed by white women ($766). Black women and Hispanic women bring up the rear with $261 and $316 less per week than Asian women.
• If used, the National average vs women’s lower rates, black women would earn $94 more per week, however, Asians and white women would earn $109 and $102 more respectively because of the concentration of higher paying jobs.
• Essentially the wage gap hurts Black and Hispanic women the least since the service and sales wage deltas is smallest

So what do we do with the statistics? Position our young women so that they can get into fields that will bring them more. We must put them in a place not to start off at a deficit.