Family-friendly policies for rural working mothers

For working parents, family friendly work policies like paid sick days, flexible time, or medical insurance can reduce work-family conflict and lead to less absenteeism and higher productivity. Working parents in rural America, however, have less access to these policies than their urban counterparts

Involuntary Part-Time Employment: A Slow and Uneven Economic Recovery

In this brief, author Rebecca Glauber reports that, although unemployment overall has returned to its pre-recession level, involuntary part-time employment is still much higher than it was before the Great Recession began--a trend that raises questions about the continuing ability of the economy to deliver employment security to people willing and able to work. Involuntary part-time employment is down 34 percent since the Great Recession but is still above its pre-recession level. If the involuntary part-time employment rate continues this pace of decline, it will not return to its pre-recession level until 2018, a full nine years after the official end of the recession. Racial disparities persist. Since the recession, involuntary part-time employment declined by over 30 percent for white, Asian, and Hispanic workers but by less than 20 percent for black workers. Among workers with less than a high school degree, 9 percent work part time involuntarily, compared to just 2 percent of college graduates. Involuntary part-time workers are more than five times as likely as full-time workers to live in poverty. As the economy continues to recover, Glauber recommends that the complexities of involuntary part-time employment and disparities in the recovery are explored

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. For women, it rose from 3.6 percent to 7.8 percent and, for men, the rate increased from 2.4 percent in 2007 to 5.9 percent in 2012. Involuntary part-time employment is a key factor in poverty. In 2012, one in four involuntary part-time workers lived in poverty, whereas just one in twenty full-time workers lived in poverty. In 2012, involuntary part-time workers were nearly five times more likely than full-time workers to have spent more than three months of the previous year unemployed. Not only do part-time workers bring home less money than full-time workers, but they also tend to have fewer fringe benefits. Involuntary part-time workers face even greater penalties. As this brief describes, they are more likely to live in poverty and to experience sustained periods of unemployment

The Unmet Need for Care: Vulnerability Among Older Adults

In this brief, authors Rebecca Glauber and Melissa Day explore factors that exacerbate the unmet need for care among the noninstitutionalized older population and seek to deter­mine who is likely to need care but go without. They find that unmarried individuals and those who live alone are more likely than others to need care but not receive it. These older adults are frail, have difficulty meet­ing their daily needs, and do not have family members or friends to whom to turn in times of need. This group of vulnerable older adults requires an array of social supports

Employment, Poverty, and Public Assistance in the Rural United States

In this brief, authors Rebecca Glauber and Andrew Schaefer provide a glimpse of the economic and demographic characteristics of life in the rural United States. Using data from the American Community Survey, they compare those living in low- and lower-middle-income counties to those living in upper-middle- and high-income counties. Additionally, they compare counties at the extremes, where median incomes are in the bottom and top 10 percent of the income distribution. They report that nearly 75 percent of low-income rural counties in the United States are in the South. Compared to lower-income rural counties, higher-income rural counties have a larger share of immigrants but a smaller share of non-native speakers. One-fifth of immigrants in low-income rural counties do not speak English, compared to just one-twentieth of immigrants in high-income rural counties. People living in poorer rural counties rely more heavily than those living in more well-off rural counties on public-sector supports, and they are less likely to work. Although policy makers tend to focus on people living in the urban United States, the authors’ results show that those living in the rural United States, and particularly in low-income counties, may have even more to gain from public health insurance and other social safety-net programs

Trends in the Motherhood Wage Penalty and Fatherhood Wage Premium for Low, Middle, and High Earners

Many studies have shown that women pay a wage penalty for motherhood, whereas men earn a wage premium for fatherhood. A few recent studies have used quantile regression to explore differences in the penalties across the wage distribution. The current study builds on this research and explores trends in the parenthood penalties and premiums from 1980 to 2014 for those at the bottom, middle, and top of the wage distribution. Analyses of data from the Current Population Survey show that the motherhood wage penalty decreased, whereas the fatherhood wage premium increased. Unconditional quantile regression models reveal that low-, middle-, and high-earning women paid similar motherhood wage penalties in the 1980s. The motherhood wage penalty began to decrease in the 1990s, but more so for high-earning women than for low-earning women. By the early 2010s, the motherhood wage penalty for high-earning women was eliminated, whereas low-earning women continued to pay a penalty. The fatherhood wage premium began to increase in the late 1990s, although again, more so for high-earning men than for low-earning men. By the early 2010s, high-earning men received a much larger fatherhood wage premium than low- or middle-earning men

Exploring the spatial wage penalty for women: Does it matter where you live?

Inequality between men and women has decreased over the past four decades in the US, but wage inequality among groups of women has increased. As metropolitan women’s earnings grew by 25% over the past four decades, non-metropolitan women’s earnings only grew by 15%. In the current study we draw on data from the Current Population Survey to analyze the spatial wage gap among women. We explore differences in the spatial wage gap by education, occupation, and industry. Regression models that control for marriage, motherhood, race, education, region, age, and work hours indicate that metropolitan women earn 17% more per hour than non-metropolitan women. Non-metropolitan women earn less than metropolitan women who live in central cities and outside central cities. The gap in metropolitan-non-metropolitan wages is higher for more educated women than for less educated women. The wage gap is only 5% for women without a high school degree, but it is 15% for women with a college degree and 26% for women with an advanced degree. Non-metropolitan college graduates are overrepresented in lower-paying occupations and industries. Metropolitan college graduates, however, are overrepresented in higher-paying occupations and industries, such as professional services and finance

On the Fringe: Family-Friendly Benefits and the Rural–Urban Gap Among Working Women

This study drew on longitudinal, nationally representative data to estimate rural–urban inequality in women’s access to family-friendly benefits. Multivariate fixed effects regression models showed that compared to urban women, rural women’s odds of reporting access were 11 % lower for flexible work scheduling, 24 % lower for job-protected maternity leave, 13 % lower for paid sick time, 21 % lower for vacation time, and 20 % lower for health insurance. The rural–urban gap in sick time was explained by differences in unionization, as rural women were less likely to be unionized than urban women. Our findings suggest that rural women’s work–family experiences may be more constrained than urban women’s work–family experiences