A new California Budget Project (CBP) report, One Step Forward: California Working Women Make Gains Over the Last Two Decades, examines the economic well-being of California’s women workers.  The report finds that:
 
•         The hourly wage of the typical woman worker increased 23.7 percent, after adjusting for inflation, between …….1979 and 2002.  
•         Wage gains vary by race and ethnicity, with the largest increases going to white, Asian, and black women, respectively.  However, the wages of the typical Latina barely kept pace with inflation.
•         Women’s wage gains exceeded those of men with similar levels of educational attainment between 1979 and 2002.
•         Women’s wage gains are due in part to the fact that an increasing share of women moved into higher paying occupations that experienced strong wage growth between 1989 and 2002.
•         Women’s relative progress stands in stark contrast to that of male workers.  The hourly wage of the typical male worker fell 7.3 percent, after adjusting for inflation, between 1979 and 2002.  The hourly earnings of low-wage (20th percentile) men fell by 15.4 percent.
•         Women still earn less than men across the earnings distribution, even after controlling for education.
 
The influx of women into the low-wage labor market caused by welfare reform appears to have dampened wage growth.  While wages of low-wage workers rose for both women and men between 1997 and 2002, the increase in women’s wages was much less than that for men, after posting strong gains since 1979.  This suggests that the increase of women in the low-wage workforce dampened wage growth.

This report is available for purchase from the CBP and can be found at www.cbp.org.
From the California Budget Project, 921 11th St Ste 502, Sacramento CA  95814-2820, Jean Ross, Executive Director, tel 916.444.0500, fax 916.444.0172, e-mail cbp@cbp.org.