By Laureen Lazarovici
When Working Women Head to the Polls, Jobs and Health Care Will Top Their Lists
To hear the concerns of America’s working women, listen to those like Brenda Arnold from Baltimore, who lost her job as a highway construction worker—two weeks after her husband lost his job. “We’ve had to sell everything including my wedding ring,” she says, adding the couple is so financially drained they’ve had to make choices such as whether to buy their daughter Christmas presents—or buy food.
As they head to the voting booth this fall, working women say finding and keeping good jobs that pay well and provide family-supporting benefits are their top priorities, according to the 2004 AFL-CIO Ask a Working Woman Report. The report, released June 2, helps union activists formulate their legislative priorities and determine which political candidates to support.
With 1.9 million private-sector jobs lost since January 2001 and wages stagnant, working women are worried. Nearly half—48 percent—of working women have been out of work in the past year or have a family member or close friend who has been out of work. More than 70 percent of those surveyed say they are worried about losing their jobs.
Working women say they want jobs that include family-supporting benefits, such as affordable health insurance, paid sick time and pensions. But they say they are not getting what they need. Nearly all working women—95 percent—say having secure, affordable health coverage is an important workplace benefit. But 31 percent do not have employer-provided health insurance.
Fully 92 percent of working women say they are worried about rising health care costs. Health care is working women’s biggest worry—one that crosses age, ethnicity and geographic differences. As part of the report, the AFL-CIO also published fact sheets on levels of unemployment, wages, poverty and the pay gap in several states. Dozens of union activists and their allies held roundtable discussions with working women to highlight the jobs crisis in their cities and states.
Working women want their elected officials to tackle the health care crisis. Making health care more affordable is their highest legislative priority, with 81 percent saying it is very important, compared with just 57 percent in 2000. In the past four years, the share of working women who support laws to make health care more affordable grew by 24 percentage points—more than any other issue surveyed.
“Health care is a very big issue,” says Judy Cooper, a secretary at a hospital in Lansing, Mich., who took part in a working women’s round-table discussion hosted by the Michigan State AFL-CIO. “The government needs to hold pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies accountable. We have to put officials into office who are for working people.”
Working women want more corporate oversight
Half of Working Women Say It Is Very Difficult to Find a Job That Pays Well and Provides Benefits How difficult do you think it is to find a good paying job with benefits in today's market—very difficult, somewhat difficult, a little difficult or not at all difficult? 
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The Ask a Working Woman Survey Report also showed a majority of women contributes about half or more to their families’ incomes. The report also reveals:
Women say in addition to health care, their legislative priorities include strengthening Social Security and retirement pensions, stronger laws against job discrimination and laws to protect overtime pay.
“I have worked almost 50 years, sometimes at two jobs at once, while raising children and completing an education,” says Becky of Everett, Wash., who answered the Ask a Working Woman Survey online, where respondents provided only first names to protect their privacy. “I have earned the right to participate in the American dream and to receive the respect of this country’s elected leaders.” @
Download the Ask a Working Woman Survey Report at www.aflcio.org/womenreport.
