F.P. Report
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen joined other female leaders to offer ideas on how to address the gender pay gap in America, as a part of CNN Business’ Featured Stories on Equal Pay Day.
Women have made major strides in the labor market over the last several decades, and America’s economy has benefitted as a result. Despite this progress, evidence suggests that many women remain unable to achieve equality in the labor market, particularly when it comes to the pay gap. And that gap is particularly large when we’re talking about women of color.
Labor market policies and norms that discourage a healthy balance between work and family commitments contribute to pay disparities. Research has shown that although women now enter professional schools at rates nearly equal to men, they are still substantially less likely to reach the highest echelons of their professions. For example, in the field of law, women make up 47 percent of students at the top 50 law schools but comprise just 17 percent of equity partners at the nation’s top law firms.
One of the contributing factors to this disparity is that top jobs in fields such as law and business require longer workweeks and penalize individuals with caretaking responsibilities. This has a disproportionately large effect on women who continue to bear the lion’s share of domestic and child-rearing responsibilities. The increased demands on caretakers during the COVID-19 pandemic may have exacerbated this dynamic.
We can and should address these challenges. The Biden-Harris Administration’s economic agenda prioritizes policies that reduce the cost of childcare, provide families more access to homecare for a loved one who falls ill, and provide paid leave to workers. This suite of policies will especially improve the economic standing of women.
By breaking down barriers to employment, these pro-family polices have the added benefit of attracting more women to the workforce and increasing the labor force participation rate. One published review found that a 10 percent decline in the price of childcare raises mothers’ employment by 0.5 to 2.5 percent, which led the Council of Economic Advisers to conclude that Biden Administration child care policies would boost affected parents’ employment rates by between 4 and 20 percent.
From history, we know that women’s participation in the paid workforce has resulted in substantial benefits to America’s economy that extend well beyond a narrowed pay gap. When women do well, we all do better. It’s vital that we make progress on this issue. Doing so will advance equality for women, strengthen the economic situation of families and grow the economy overall.
