Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/24680
ly than men to receive unemployment insurance, and women overall are also 12 percent less likely to have health insurance through their own jobs. Women also lose out in retirement: The average annu- al Social Security income of those 65 years and older is considerably less than men’s: $10,685 versus $14,055. Not surprisingly, then, the poverty rate for women over the age of 65 is almost twice that of men’s: 12 percent versus 6.6 percent. The challenge that lies ahead will be to upend Ameri- cans’ outdated assumptions about what constitutes “im- portant” work. The system of rewarding only paid work with government benefits may seem gender-neutral, and even good policy, but it’s not. It penalizes women who work, and harms families. We must recognize that unpaid caretaking is equally important, not just on a moral level but also in terms of investing in our nation’s intellectual capital. In addition, we need to stop treating as second- class citizens the women and men who work in lower-pay- ing jobs, who have to change jobs or who must work flexible hours. Here are five specific suggestions for revamping U.S. work/life policy to take into account women’s lives, the va- riety of ways they work and the value of that work: We need to provide more security for those who have lower earnings or who have sacrificed earnings for care- giving, not less. A fairer safety net would treat all work— part-time, full-time, sporadic, steady, high-paid, low- paid and even unpaid caregiving work—as grounds for benefits. N 1o. What would such a safety net look like? It would provide a caregiving credit for women looking after sick family members, raising children or caring for elderly parents— the same way paid workers get credit toward Social Securi- ty for working. It would provide flat benefits as well as earnings-related benefits, so that a woman who worked as STATS: NO PAID MATERNITY LEAVE 169 countries guarantee paid maternity leave. 98 provide 14 or more weeks. The U.S. guarantees none. SOURCE: The Project on Global Working Families, The Institute for Health and Social Policy, McGill University 30 | FALL 2009 www.feminist.org STOP MAKING UNEMPLOYMENT, RETIREMENT AND OTHER BENEFITS CONTINGENT ON STEADY, FULL-TIME WORK. a janitor could stay out of poverty in old age even though she didn’t earn as much as the corporate lawyer whose of- fice she cleaned. It would make unemployment insurance available to temporary and low-paid workers as well as those who lose a job for family-related reasons. Women often find that the “three legs” of the retire- ment stool—personal savings, Social Security and private pensions—are wobbly. Social Security, instituted in 1935, has been enormously successful in reducing the poverty rate for those over 65: from 35 percent in 1960, the first year data was kept, to less than 10 percent in 2007. How- ever, women who earn less or sacrifice earning to care for family members receive lower retirement benefits. Although women now make up almost half of the work- force, the average woman spends 12 years out of the paid workforce, often to care for children or elderly relatives. Since workers’ benefits are calculated based on their 35 highest-earning years, that means seven more years of ze- ros to figure into the benefit calculations of a woman whose worklife spans 25 to 65—which substantially low- ers her Social Security benefits. Instead, caregiving years should not be entered as zeros, and either be taken out of the equation or given a dollar value. N2o. DON’T MAKE FLEXIBLE HOURS A BARRIER TO HEALTH INSURANCE, ANDDOSTOP CHARGING WOMEN MORE FOR HEALTH INSURANCE. Women are more likely to be uninsured, to be underin- sured, to have difficulty accessing and paying for needed medical care, and to forgo needed medical care due to cost. Women tend to pay more for individual health-insurance policies, even if they don’t include maternity benefits. Some insurers charge women as much as 50 percent more, while employers pay more per individual in their group health plans if their workforce is predominately women—a system known as “gender rating.” Employers can provide health insurance at their discretion, and they’re also able to deter- mine how many hours someone works so that they won’t have enough hours to qualify for the group insurance plan.