Category: Employment
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Rural Workers Have Less Access to Paid Sick Days This brief, using data from the 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW) survey, analyzes paid sick time rates of workers by place and type of work. Paid sick days provide job protection to workers and a steady paycheck when they need to care for themselves or family members. Paid sick days also help workers with more limited resources who cannot otherwise afford to take a day off. Authors Kristin Smith and Andrew Schaefer report that a greater proportion of rural workers than urban workers (both suburban and central-city) lack access to at least five paid sick days per year. Their analysis suggests that where one works matters, both geographically and by sector, and the quality of the job also matters. The rural disadvantage is particularly pronounced among rural private-sector workers and part-time workers, but even rural full-time workers have less access to paid sick days than their urban counterparts.
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Vulnerable Families Research Program | Employment, Family, Health, Rural | Publication |
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Rural Workers More Likely to Work Nontraditional Shifts Workers in rural areas have historically worked at different times of the day compared to their counterparts in urban areas, including during less traditional work periods, such as in the early morning, afternoon, and evening hours. This brief presents a snapshot of the rural workforce around the clock.
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Vulnerable Families Research Program | Employment, Rural, Urban | Publication |
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Rural Workers Would Benefit from Unemployment Insurance Modernization Rural workers stand to benefit from the modernization of unemployment insurance (UI) to cover part-time workers, which is an opportunity for states under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Plan (ARRA). Rural workers are more likely to work part-time, and many states that do not provide UI benefits to part-time workers have higher than average proportions of rural residents.
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Vulnerable Families Research Program | Employment, Rural, Safety Net, Unemployment | Publication |
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Rural Workers Would Benefit More Than Urban Workers from an Increase in the Federal Minimum Wage While members of the U.S. Senate considered the first increase in minimum wage in a decade, the Carsey Institute released findings of a study showing that it would benefit rural, low-wage workers every bit as much, if not more, than workers in big cities.
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Vulnerable Families Research Program | Employment, Rural, Urban, Wages | Publication |
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Seventy-eight Percent of Working Rural Families to Receive Full Making Work Pay Tax Credit The Making Work Pay Tax Credit provides eligible U.S. workers with additional money in each paycheck throughout the year. The fact sheet shows that 78 percent of rural working families will receive the full amount of the credit, while an additional 10 percent of families will receive a partial credit due to low earnings or high earnings. These tax credits, along with the expansion to the Child Tax Credit, are an important financial boost to families in rural America, particularly low-income working families.
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Vulnerable Families Research Program | Employment, Family, Rural, Safety Net, Tax | Publication |
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The Inequities of Job Loss and Recovery Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic In this policy brief, authors Rogelio Sáenz and Corey Sparks discuss the wide variations in unemployment and the level of job loss during the COVID-19 pandemic across the nation’s demographic groups that have historically suffered disparities in the workforce, including persons of color, women, and immigrants. It is particularly unfortunate that the calamity of the pandemic comes on the heels of major improvements in job prospects that these groups made over the last decade, as the workforce emerged from the Great Recession.
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COVID-19 | African Americans, COVID-19, Employment, Hispanics, Income, Inequality, Race, Unemployment, Women | Publication |
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The Interaction Between the Minimum Wage and the Federal EITC Increases in the minimum wage are widely assumed to be beneficial for low-income workers, but it is important to consider the effect an increase might have on eligibility for other benefits, particularly the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). This fact sheet examines the interaction between the minimum wage and the EITC to determine whether a minimum wage increase would produce gains in the sum of earnings plus EITC dollars for low-income workers.1
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Vulnerable Families Research Program | Employment, Income, Safety Net, Tax, Wages | Publication |
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The Long-Term Unemployed in the Wake of the Great Recession Using the Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey, this brief outlines the demographic and economic characteristics of the long-term unemployed and compares them with their short-term unemployed counterparts. It also describes changes in the composition of the long-term unemployed since the start of the Great Recession.
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Vulnerable Families Research Program | Employment, Health Insurance, Rural, Unemployment, Urban | Publication |
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The State of Working New Hampshire 2006 While New Hampshire has the highest labor force participation (71 percent) and the second-lowest unemployment and underemployment rates in New England, recent trends in employment and wages point to growing disparities in the state, this issue brief finds. The brief provides a state-focused analysis of the Economic Policy Institute's national report, “The State of Working America 2005/2006.”
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New Hampshire | Employment, New Hampshire, Wages | Publication |
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The State of Working New Hampshire 2007 The author of this annual update on the state's workforce finds that wage growth in the state has not kept up with the rising cost of living in New Hampshire. This negative impact exists despite the state's low unemployment rates and high labor force participation rates. This brief was prepared in cooperation with the Economic Policy Institute.
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New Hampshire | Economic Development, Employment, New Hampshire, Wages | Publication |
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The State of Working New Hampshire 2009 The issue brief finds that while New Hampshire workers have fared well compared with other New England states, wages have stagnated and full-time workers now form a smaller share of the labor force.
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New Hampshire | Employment, New Hampshire, Wages | Publication |
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The State of Working Vermont 2006 Vermont enjoys higher-than-average workforce participation rates and the lowest unemployment in New England, but the state's wage levels remain well below regional standards and the workforce is aging, finds this issue brief prepared by the Carsey Institute in partnership with the Public Assets Institute of Vermont. The brief highlights trends related to the economic and labor force characteristics of Vermont's workers.
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Vulnerable Families Research Program | Employment, New England, Seniors, Wages | Publication |
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Underemployment in Urban and Rural America, 2005-2012 Author Justin Young reports that underemployment (or involuntary part-time work) rates doubled during the second year of the recession, reaching roughly 6.5 percent in 2009. This increase was equally steep in both rural and urban places. By March of 2012, underemployment was slightly lower in rural places (4.8 percent) compared to urban places (5.3 percent).
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Vulnerable Families Research Program | Employment, Income, Rural, Urban | Publication |
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Unemployment in the Great Recession: Single Parents and Men Hit Hard This brief discusses the sweeping impact the Great Recession has had on Americans, particularly men, single parents, young adults, and people with less education. Using data from the 2007 and 2010 Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey, the authors report that unemployment is highest among men and among unmarried adults, regardless of place or parenting status. Although this was also true before the recession, gaps between men and women, and the unmarried and married, have widened considerably during the recession. Also during the Great Recession, unemployment rose more in central cities and suburban places than in rural places, perhaps because rural unemployment was already high prior to the start of the recession. The authors discuss the need to provide unemployment benefits for individuals experiencing long-term unemployment, and they highlight the importance of programs such as the TANF emergency fund and the Workforce Investment Act. The brief examine changes in unemployment patterns by sex, age, education, race and ethnicity, marital status, and parental status, paying particular attention to differences by place of residence.
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Vulnerable Families Research Program | Employment, Poverty, Unemployment | Publication |
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Unemployment Insurance: A Safety Net for Victims of Intimate Partner Violence and Their Children The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that over 5 million intimate partner assaults are perpetrated against women each year, and they lose more than 8 million days of work annually. Expanding Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits to victims of domestic violence is one mechanism for supporting women as they seek to escape the violence in their lives.
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Vulnerable Families Research Program | Employment, Health, Safety Net, Unemployment, Women | Publication |
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Urban-Rural Differences in Concern about the Environment and Jobs in the Puget Sound Region Using data from a phone survey of 1,980 Puget Sound residents conducted in 2012, this fact sheet examines the severity of different environmental problems and compares the strength of concern about the lack of jobs and beliefs about the environment. Too few jobs and the loss of wildlife habitat were the two community issues most likely to be ranked as important problems among residents of Puget Sound. Environmental concern is higher among urban than rural residents, while those in rural areas are more likely than urbanites to believe the lack of jobs is a threat to their community.
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Community, Environment, and Climate Change | Community, Employment, Environment, Public Opinion | Publication |
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Wanting More but Working Less: Involuntary Part-Time Employment and Economic Vulnerability Using data from the Current Population Survey, a national survey of U.S. households, this brief outlines a strong association between involuntary part-time employment and economic vulnerability. Author Rebecca Glauber reports that the involuntary part-time employment rate more than doubled between 2007 and 2012.
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Vulnerable Families Research Program | Employment, Poverty | Publication |
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Who Would Be Affected By a New Minimum Wage Policy? This brief describes the population who would be directly affected by the President’s proposal to increase the minimum wage to $9.00 per hour: workers earning between $7.25 and $9.00 per hour.
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Vulnerable Families Research Program | Employment | Publication |
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Women As Economic Providers Women’s contributions to family income are essential for most families. This is obviously true for the growing number of single-mother families, but increasingly so for married couple families. While dual-earner families are doing relatively well, family income overall has been stagnant or decreasing among single-earner families, resulting in a widening income gap. This study provides an examination of married and single women’s contributions to family income. Single women are comprised of those who are cohabiting, in same sex marriages, living alone, with parents or other family members, or living with roommates. In this brief, we consider family income for all single and married women. In the case that single women live alone or with nonrelatives, family income is comprised of the woman’s income.
Analysis of Current Population Survey data for 2000 and 2013 shows that dual-earner couples have higher family incomes than sole-earner married couples or single women with or without children. Of different family types, married couples in which the husband is the primary earner (the husband earns 60 percent or more of total family earnings) had the highest median family income in 2013 ($101,000), followed closely by married couples in which both spouses had similar earnings ($98,000). In contrast, single mothers with children had the lowest median family income ($30,000). In addition, family income rose among dual-earner couples primarily due to an increase in these wives’ earnings, but declined among sole-earner married-couple and single-women families from 2000 to 2013, contributing to increased inequality. See Box 1 for a definition of terms.
Wives in husband primary-earner families consistently contributed 24 percent of family income, while wives in wife primary-earner families contributed 67 percent of family income in 2013.
Introduction
With women’s rising levels of education, employment, and earnings, the position of women in the family and in society at large has shifted. Women’s contributions to family income are now essential for most families, obviously for the growing number of single-mother families, but increasingly so for married couple families. The increasingly positive trends for women’s economic independence mask variations in their labor market experiences and, by extension, the well-being of American families. While dual-earner couple families are doing quite well in terms of income,1 family income has been stagnant or decreasing among single-earner families, resulting in a widening gap and “diverging destinies”2 driven by family structure, women’s employment, and men’s standing in the labor force. And as life pathways, experiences, and opportunities diverge, shared social experience erodes.3
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Vulnerable Families Research Program | Employment, Family, Gender | Publication |
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Working Families’ Access to Early Childhood Education Although the Upper Valley has more than 200 licensed child care providers, the corresponding number of licensed slots is about 2,000 short of the estimated number of young children who likely need early care and education. Early childhood is a critical developmental period, and access to early childhood education is essential not only for learning but also as a necessary support for parents who work. While policymakers and practitioners recognize the importance and necessity of high-quality early education, its availability and affordability remain elusive for many families. The East Coast in particular has high child care costs, and child care consumes a large share of family income.1
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Vulnerable Families Research Program | Child Care, Employment, Family | Publication |