Women's Top Legislative Priorities are Equal Pay, Paid Family Leave, Health Care and Retirement , New Study Shows

Washington, D.C. — One out of four working women today holds a job with regular hours at night or on weekends, and almost half of working women work different hours or shifts than their spouses or partners, according to a new study by the AFL-CIO, the umbrella organization for America's unions. These findings help explain working women's continuing exasperation trying to balance work and family in today's "24-7 economy."

As they move into this election season, working women also report remarkable unanimity in their top legislative priorities: equal pay, paid family leave, health care, retirement security and affirmative action were the top concerns of women across race, income and educational level.

The study, entitled "Working Women Say..." is based on a new national telephone survey of 765 working women over the age of 18 nationwide, conducted by Lake Snell Perry & Associates, Inc. The survey was commissioned by the AFL-CIO, which with more than five million working women members is the nation's largest organization of working women.

"Today's 'instant' economy is leaving working women with more stresses than ever," said Linda Chavez-Thompson, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President. "Working women need help in balancing work and family, and they'll take that need into the voting booth in November."

The survey found that while most working women today feel secure on their jobs, more than one in four working women (28 percent) say that at least part of their working hours are in the evenings or on the weekends — and this is also true of women with children under 18 (26 percent). Women who earn less than $25,000 are more likely to work irregular hours (42 percent). Equally striking is that nearly half of all women who are married or living with a partner say they work different schedules (46 percent). Among married women with young children, that figure rises to 51 percent.

"Women are struggling to balance their families' work schedules at home, and then facing unequal pay and a lack of benefits once they get to their job," said AFL-CIO Working Women's Department Director Karen Nussbaum. "That will affect how they vote. We've heard of the election years of the soccer mom, the waitress mom and the basketball mom. This might well be the year of the Super Mom."

The survey found:

• Women strongly support measures to help them meet family obligations while working. An overwhelming 83 percent of working women say that expanding the Family Medical Leave Act and providing paid leave is important to them. Many working women say their employers don't offer flexibility over their hours (34 percent), paid sick leave for themselves (29 percent), paid leave to care for a baby or sick family member (54 percent) or child care benefits (74 percent). "We don't have a choice of the hours we're working," said a bus operator and single mother from Indiana. "We're penalizing our children."

• Across the board, stronger equal pay laws are working women's number one legislative priority, with a full 87 percent saying it's important. Government statistics show that working women earn only 73 cents to the dollar than men earn, even as corporate profits and productivity soar. And 80 percent of women say stronger affirmative action laws to provide more opportunities for all women are important.
  
  
• Women are keenly aware that they need better health care benefits, with more then 44 million Americans uninsured. Roughly one-quarter of working women say their jobs don't offer secure, affordable health insurance. The vast majority of working women (84 percent) say making quality health care more affordable is important. In addition, more than seven in 10 (72 percent) think it's important to strengthen laws to provide for benefits and fair pay for part-time and temporary workers.

• Finally, because women will earn less and accumulate less wealth during their lifetimes, they are far more likely than men to retire poor. More than a quarter (28 percent) of all working women don't receive any pension or retirement benefits on the job. That's why legislation to improve pensions and protect Social Security is a top priority — fully 81 percent of working women say it is important. "I will retire to poverty. There's no other way to put it," said a school cafeteria worker in Denver, after 25 years on the job.
  
  

Working women say they want a strong voice in the workplace and they want respect — they see working together as the way to achieve their goals. More than three-quarters of women say respect on the job is a very high or highest priority for them — that figure rises to 84 percent among women making less than $25,000 a year. More than eight in 10 working women (82 percent) say an organization for working women would help them achieve their goals.

These findings echo the results of another AFL-CIO poll, done by Peter Hart Research Associates, Inc. in 1999, which found that women are more likely than men to say they would vote for a union tomorrow if given the chance.

The Lake Snell Perry & Associates survey shows that working women who are members of unions already experience the benefits of working together. They are more likely than women without a union to have employer-provided pension and health benefits, equal pay, paid sick leave and family leave. Women who have a union make 35 percent more than women without one, according to 1999 Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The "Working Women Say..." report is part of a year-long project by the AFL-CIO Working Women's Department to highlight women's issues and concerns going into the 2000 elections. The AFL-CIO hosted 5,000 group discussions in workplaces, kitchens, conference rooms and town halls across the country, and followed up with the survey. The release of the study will kick-off the AFL-CIO's Working Women 2000 Conference in Chicago, March 11-12, which will bring together 5000 working women from around the nation. Vice President Al Gore and once-jailed, Indonesian labor activist Dita Sara will be among the honored guests.

Additional groups involved in the Ask a Working Woman activities included 9to5, National Association of Working Women, AIWA, (Asian Immigrant Women's Advocates) in Oakland, California and DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality) in Providence, Rhode Island.

Contact: Lane Windham (202) 637-3962