Today marks the 92^nd anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment – a victory that finally gave women full voting rights. Almost a century later, it’s an opportunity to celebrate women’s voice in politics and policy and to take a good look at the work that remains to be done on the path to equality.

As we reported on Friday, the preliminary findings of the 2012 Status of Women in North Carolina report released last week by the North Carolina Council for Women show that despite women’s higher levels of education and the significant increase in labor force participation over the past decades, wage and income inequality persists.

• The wage gap continues: Women’s wages continue to be lower than men’s wages in the state, adding up to approximately $7,000 per year or $135 per week less than the median annual earnings of comparable men.
• The wage gap is even greater compared by educational level: For instance, women with at least a college degree earn more than $20,000 less per year than comparable men. This amounts to a wage gap of 29 percent.
• More women continue to live in poverty. 17 percent of women compared to 13 percent of men in North Carolina lived in families with incomes at or below the federal poverty threshold. 34 percent of Hispanic women, 25 percent of African American women, and 25 percent of American Indian women in North Carolina lived at or below the poverty line.

Our labor force looks much different than it did 50 years ago. Read More…

Everyone gets sick, faces family emergencies, or needs to take time from work at some point. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released new data confirming that those with the least amount of economic security and those with the greatest need for leave, are the least likely to be able to access paid leave when these events happen.

This is the first time that the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) has included questions on leave-taking among American workers, and the findings on disparities in access to and use of leave are stark. By far, workers with lower wages, Hispanic workers, and workers with the most contact with the public are less likely to have access to leave and to lose pay when they do take time off. Here are some of the national numbers:

-          42 percent of American private sectors have no paid time off. None.

-          Only 1 in 4 workers in the leisure and hospitality industry have access.

-          3 out of 4 part-time workers have no access to paid leave.

-          Hispanic workers have less access to paid leave, but more family caregiving responsibilities.

As we have written before, paid leave is about economic security and job stability. Here in North Carolina, 7 out of 10 families have all parents in the workforce and almost 1.2 million North Carolinians are caregivers for older or sick adults. The Center for American Progress released new fact sheets yesterday detailing the importance and feasibility of such workplace policies as paid sick days, paid family and medical leave, and workplace flexibility. And you can read more about the North Carolina context here.

“You can’t call yourself the boss if you don’t (bleep)-ing pay them!”

-Celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay

“Hotel Hell” premiered on Fox last night, bringing potty-mouthed celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay into the underworld of mismanaged hotels and their restaurants. On his other shows, Ramsay usually offers some enjoyable brain-rot as he formulaically transforms the mismanaged establishments  and their hard-headed owners with cutting, blunt talk that culminates in the owner’s teary-eyed realization of the errors of his or her ways. A transformation of character results, usually aided by a free restaurant makeover thanks in part to our sponsors.

Instead, Monday’s episode (which ended in a cliff-hanger) was a textbook example of rampant wage theft at the Juniper Hill Inn, in Windsor, VT.

It’s a beautifully appointed hotel whose owners have spent a fortune on antiques and art for rooms but who don’t pay their own staff regularly. Read More…

For the roughly 646,000 workers in North Carolina supporting themselves and, in many cases, their families on $7.25 per hour, a federal increase of the minimum wage to $9.80 per hour could bring an annual wage (for a full-time, year round worker) to $20,384. While this annual wage continues to be approximately half of what it actually takes for the typical North Carolina family of three to afford basic expenses, it would be an extremely important step in the right direction. An increase would help struggling families across the state, while at the same time providing a much-needed boost for the economy.

A new report released today by the Economic Policy Institute takes a closer look at the potential impacts of The Fair Minimum Wage Act, introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Rep. George Miller (D-CA) on July 26, 2012. The proposed increase would raise the federal minimum wage from the current $7.25 to $9.80 by 2014, through three incremental increases of $0.85 and raise the tipped minimum wage, currently sitting at $2.13 per hour, to 70 percent of the regular minimum wage.

The report examines the demographic characteristics of affected workers and finds, for instance, that contrary to the perception that most minimum wage workers are teenagers, 92 percent of those who would be affected by a minimum wage increase in North Carolina are at least 20 years old. Similarly, data on educational attainment of those who would be affected by an increase shows that 44.6 percent have some college education, an associate degree or more.

While increasing the minimum wage immediately benefits the lowest-paid workers through boosted earnings, it also has positive effects on the larger economy. Raising the minimum wage puts much needed earnings into the hands of those who need it most, and are most likely to spend in the local economy. The report notes that the GDP impact for North Carolina is estimated to be close to $848 million with the possibility of an additional 3,400 net new jobs created in the state.