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Scaring Young Women from the Health Care Law

Posted by Dania Palanker, Senior Counsel | Posted on: September 20, 2013 at 12:20 pm

The latest strategy to undermine the health care law: scare young women.

That is the strategy used in an ad released yesterdayThe ad starts with a young woman walking through a doctor’s office as ominous music is playing in the background. The woman walking with her says “Oh, I see you decided to sign up for Obamacare.” The way she says that, we suspect there is a problem. The doctor visits the exam room and then leaves her alone on an exam table. And we are left waiting and wondering – what is the truth about the coverage she signed up for through Obamacare?

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Stop Tax Haven Abuse—Another Way to Fight Poverty and Inequality

Posted by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security | Posted on: September 19, 2013 at 04:34 pm

It’s been a roller coaster week, and it’s not over yet. Disappointing news from the Census Bureau that we didn’t make progress reducing poverty or the wage gap last year. Exciting news from the Department of Labor about a new rule that brings home care workers one giant step closer to fair pay. The threat that the House will vote later today to slash vital SNAP (Food Stamp) benefits for millions of Americans and vote tomorrow to extend the sequester for several more months. The sequester vote will include yet another effort to defund the Affordable Care Act.

But even in Congress, there are some encouraging developments. Yesterday, several Members of Congress turned out for a special game of Chutes and Ladders (with hula hoops!) to show their support for investing in early learning. And today, Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) and cosponsors Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Mark Begich (D-AK) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) introduced the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act to close offshore tax loopholes.

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2012 State by State Wage Gap Rankings: Fair Pay Still a Long Way Off in Most States

Posted by | Posted on: September 19, 2013 at 04:15 pm

Today, the Census Bureau released data from the American Community Survey, a survey that provides median earnings for men and women by state. Based on that data, NWLC has calculated the wage gap for each state. Some of our key findings:

  • In 2012, Wyoming again had the largest wage gap, with women working full time, year round typically making just 63.8 percent of what their male counterparts made.
  • Both Louisiana (66.9 percent) and West Virginia (69.9 percent) also had wage gaps of 30 cents or more. The gap in Wyoming amounts to $18,780 annually — equivalent to more than half of the typical woman's earnings in Wyoming in 2012.
  • In 2012, the District of Columbia once again had the smallest wage gap women working full time, year round in the nation’s capital, were typically paid 90.1 percent of what their male counterparts were paid. 
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Where Does Your State Rank? The Best and Worst for Women’s Health Insurance Coverage

Posted by Stephanie Glover, Health Policy Fellow | Posted on: September 19, 2013 at 03:55 pm

Today, the Census Bureau released new state by state data on women’s health insurance coverage. The data is clear: all states are not equal. In some states, like Massachusetts, nearly all women have health insurance. But, in other states, like Texas, almost one-third of women are uninsured. Without insurance, women have to worry about where to get the health care they need and also have to consider how a costly health care problem could harm their family’s economic stability.

Below, we’ve ranked the best and worst states for health insurance coverage of women aged 18-64, so you can see the range of health coverage across the states.

First, the five best states for women’s health insurance coverage:

  1. And, the winner is: Massachusetts! Over 96 percent of women have health insurance in the Bay State.
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Hula Hooping with Harkin and Giggling with Gillibrand

Posted by Becka Wall, Program Assistant | Posted on: September 19, 2013 at 12:14 pm

The best part about working here at the NWLC is that every so often, I get to venture outside of the office and do something really fun and different with part of my day. Yesterday, instead of my usual commute, I headed down to the Capitol to play a life-size game of Chutes & Ladders with some really adorable children, truly inspirational members of Congress, and early education advocates.

As our own Helen Blank notes in her Huffington Post piece, the sequester has caused 57,000 children to lose out on access to Head Start, and many families lack high-quality early learning in their communities. Stories collected by the National Women’s Law Center and members of the Strong Start campaign that were distributed to Senators today make it clear that a positive early education experience benefits children and families throughout their lives.

This morning’s event gave us a chance to put some really adorable faces on the lives that laws involving early education touch.

All photos courtesy Jeffrey Martin.

Senator Mazie Hironi, and Representatives Rosa DeLauro and George Miller talk with Jack about the importance of early education. | Photo Credit: Jeffrey Martin

Senator Mazie Hironi, and Representatives Rosa DeLauro and George Miller talk with Jack about the importance of early education.

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The True Cost of French Fries

Posted by Becka Wall, Program Assistant | Posted on: September 18, 2013 at 03:43 pm

I have a confession to make: I love McDonald’s French fries. When I was in college, during particularly stressful finals or mid-terms weeks, I would go to the campus McDonald’s and order myself a small fries. I’d time my visit around when I knew the fries were likely to be fresh and excitedly hop on my toes waiting for that crispy, salty goodness.

Nowadays, when I think back to my trips to those glowing golden arches, I can’t help but think about minimum wage and low-wage workers; and no matter how delicious those French fries tasted, I can’t help but leave with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth and feel as though those arches have lost their luster.

NWLC’s analyses show that two-thirds of minimum-wage and tipped-wage workers are women, 60% of women’s job gains in the recovery are in the ten largest low-wage jobs. NWLC analysis of the Census Bureau’s most recent numbers show that the overall poverty rate hasn’t budged much, with 18.4 percent of families with children in poverty, and 14.5 percent of women compared with 11.0 percent of men living in poverty.  More than one in seven women – 17.8 million – live in poverty. 

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Poverty and the Wage Gap Both Hurt Women and Families

Posted by | Posted on: September 18, 2013 at 02:32 pm
56 percent of poor children live in families headed by women.

Census Bureau data released yesterday show that women continue to experience high rates of poverty and a nasty wage gap.

In 2012, the poverty rate for women was 14.5 percent, substantially higher than men’s rate of 11 percent. Nearly 17.8 million women lived in poverty last year.

Poverty rates were particularly high for families headed by single mothers – more than four in ten (40.9 percent) were poor. More than half (56.1 percent) of poor children lived in female-headed families in 2012.

The poverty rates for other vulnerable groups of women were also high: black women (25.1 percent), Hispanic women (24.8 percent), and women 65 and older living alone (18.9 percent).

The wage gap figures also paint a bleak picture for many women.

The cold hard facts are that women working full time, year round continue to be paid only 77 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts, and the numbers are far worse for women of color, at 64 cents for black women and 54 cents for Hispanic women.

With women as primary breadwinners in over 40% of families today, women and their families simply cannot afford to make do with less.

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6th Circuit Says Your Boss Can’t Say No to Your Birth Control

Posted by Leila Abolfazli, Senior Counsel | Posted on: September 18, 2013 at 01:22 pm

In a unanimous decision in Autocam v. Sebelius, the 6th Circuit held that a for-profit, secular company is not a ‘“person’ capable of ‘religious exercise’” under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) (RFRA is a federal law that protects an individual’s exercise of religious freedom from substantially burdensome laws where the government did not have a compelling interest in passing the law). Based on this holding, the Autocam companies – Michigan-based manufacturers of auto and medical supplies – can’t bring a RFRA challenge to the Obamacare rule requiring health insurance plans to cover the full range of birth control methods. Oh, and the 6th Circuit held that Autocam’s owners also can’t challenge the rule under RFRA because the birth control requirement is on the company, not the owners.

This means that Autocam’s female employees and dependents will not have access to coverage for the birth control method that’s appropriate for them, without cost sharing. In other words, they finally get to take advantage of this fabulous Obamacare benefit that many of us have been enjoying for a year now.

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