In keeping with my promise last week, I’m back with more on the DC Women’s Agenda’s white paper, Voices and Choices for D.C. Women and Girls: Recommendations for City Leaders 2007–and action you can take to encourage city leaders to increase the economic security of our region’s women.
This week’s topic is economic security for women and girls, or, the lack thereof, and how it feeds into a number of other issues facing our city. Economic security is at the forefront of every issue in the white paper, largely because we can talk about the housing crisis, healthcare, and domestic violence and other safety issues (and don’t worry, we will), but without a good job, these topics are all moot.
An individual must have a job in order to survive, to have basic needs met. Having a good job is the starting point to all other things in one’s life.
As the white paper details:
Economic security is a critical component of healthy, stable lives. Individuals and families fall apart in the absence of good jobs—ones that pay self-sufficient wages, include benefits such as health insurance and paid sick days, and provide flexibility to balance work and family. The foundation to obtaining and maintaining a job is a quality education and strong skills in areas where there is a need and where good jobs exist.
For women and girls in the District of Columbia, unfortunately, both the foundation for economic security and that security itself are in short supply. The school system fails to adequately educate our young women, and the job training programs that exist inadequately position women to obtain good jobs in strong markets. Even when a woman is able to receive the education and training she needs, the jobs themselves frequently lack the kind of flexibility that is so crucial for balancing work and family.
The large majority of single parent households in the District of Columbia are headed by women, so women are the ones who suffer by the city’s lack of affordable, available child care and the nonexistence of laws requiring employers to provide paid sick days of family and medical leave.
There is no hiding the fact that the gap between the rich and the poor in D.C. is extremely vast. The business community in D.C. is booming, but it is not D.C. residents who are benefiting. In D.C., employers are required to fill 51 percent of all new jobs with D.C. residents in an effort to ensure that those who live in the city are getting its jobs.
This sounds like a good idea…if it were enforced. According to a report done by the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, the Department of Employment Services has never fined a business for failure to comply.
In D.C., 30 percent of women-headed families are living in poverty and 11 percent of women are unemployed. This is just shy of double the national rate of unemployment.
There are many barriers that women and girls face when it comes to attaining sustainable employment, the largest of these being education and job training.
The education system in the District is lacking. By 8th grade, 69 percent of students in D.C. public schools have below average math skills, as compared to 32 percent nationwide. With statistics like that, it is not surprising that many of D.C.’s children are not prepared when it comes time to find a job.
And that therefore job training would be extremely beneficial.
For those who are fortunate to get a job in D.C., the barriers do not stop there.
Half of the city’s private sector jobs do not provide paid sick days or paid family and medical leave. If an individual is lucky enough to find a decent paying job in D.C., they better not get sick because they do not have the luxury of being able to take a day off with pay. Most low wage workers are forced to make the decision of staying home to care for themselves or go to work sick.
Many do not have a choice. They have to go to work.
Some even run the risk of getting fired for taking a day off to care for themselves.
Allowing workers to take a day or two to take care of themselves will ensure a shorter recovery time and mean that when the worker is at work, they are working at their full potential and not nursing an illness.
Currently there is legislation going through the DC City Council that would provide full time workers up to 10 paid sick days and part time workers five days. With these available days, a worker can stay home to take care of themselves as well as a child or other family member if they are sick. The employee can take the days without fear of repercussion.
The DC Employment Justice Center, along with many other nonprofits, service providers and advocates hope that this legislation will provide some relief to already over worked, underpaid D.C. workers.
Talking about topics such as these can be overwhelming and frustrating. It’s hard to know what to do to combat such complex issues. One thing that you can do to help provide the workers of D.C. with some time off to take care of themselves is to contact your councilmember and tell them that you support the Paid Sick and Safe Days Act of 2007. You can also show your support by coming out to the public hearing on July 9 at 3 p.m. at the John A. Wilson Building at 1350 Pennsylvania Ave, NW.
Or, if you would like more information about the paid sick and safe days initiative, please feel free to contact me at any time.
For more information on the Paid Sick and Safe Days Act of 2007, see Jack Mahoney’s previous post on how you can help build economic security in an office near you!
Jessica’s previous post on the white paper can be found here. And there will be more to follow!
Jessica Goshow is DC Employment Justice Center’s (DCEJC) legal and policy associate. Being that EJC and Wider Opportunities for Women are the co-chairs of the DCWA, she was involved in the coordination, writing, and reviewing of the white paper.
The DC Women’s Agenda, DC Employment Justice Center and Wider Opportunities for Women are all Grantee Partners of The Women’s Foundation.
