August 31, 2004

IWPR’s Research News Reporter is distributed monthly to highlight inventive, informative, innovative, and sometimes controversial research relating to women and their families. Each selection includes a short description of the research and either a link to the report itself or a citation. We sometimes include short pieces in their entirety.

In this edition:

1.       Women’s Earnings Fall; U.S. Census Bureau Finds Rising Gender Wage Gap

2.       Imprisoning America: The Social Effects of Mass Incarceration

3.       Family Violence Option State by State Summary

4.       Recent Trends in Nonprofit Employment and Earnings: 1990-2004

5.       Grandma and Grandpa Taking Care of the Kids: Patterns of Involvement

1. Women’s Earnings Fall; U.S. Census Bureau Finds Rising Gender Wage Gap
August 27, 2004
Institute for Women’s Policy Research

IWPR’s press release reports that the wage ratio between women and men’s earnings declined by 1.4 percent between 2002 and 2003. The 2003 Current Population Survey data shows that the real earnings of full-time, year-round women workers fell by 0.6 percent, to $30,724, while men’s earnings remained unchanged. According to IWPR, this worsening in the gender wage ratio is the largest in 12 years.

http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/WageRatioPress_release8-27-04.pdf

Other interesting analyses of the new U.S. Census Bureau data include:

On Women’s Equality Day…Poverty of Women and Children Increases for Third Straight Year: Wage Gap Increases, Number of Uninsured Women Rises
National Women’s Law Center
http://www.nwlc.org/details.cfm?id=1986&section=newsroom

Census Data Show Poverty Increased, Income Stagnated, and the Number of Uninsured Rose to a Record Level in 2003
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
http://www.cbpp.org/8-26-04pov.pdf

2. Imprisoning America: The Social Effects of Mass Incarceration
2004
Mary Pattillo, David Weiman, and Bruce Western, editors
Russell Sage Foundation

This book offers a collection of new research by a number of top researchers in sociology, economics, criminal justice, psychology, and social work on the social costs and consequences of the rapidly increasing rates of incarceration in the United States. The impetus for the book comes from the mass incarceration of disproportionately poor, young, Black, uneducated men and the changing role of incarceration in the lives of these men. Specifically, the authors consider the effects of incarceration on fatherhood and parenting, community organization, political participation, and employment outcomes.   

http://www.russellsage.org/Merchant2/new.shtml

3. Family Violence Option: State by State Summary
July 2004
Legal Momentum

This summary chart provides detailed, state-by-state data on the implementation progress of the Family Violence Option (FVO) of the 1996 welfare reform bill. The FVO allows states to waive some TANF requirements, such as time limits or child support enforcement, for welfare recipients who are victims of family violence. As of July 2004, only Idaho, Oklahoma, and Virginia had not adopted the FVO. The chart summarizes the waivable requirements, standards for grants of waivers, related laws and policies, and the coverage for stranger or acquaintance violence for each state and the District of Columbia.

www.legalmomentum.org/issues/wel/FVO_statebystate.pdf

4. Recent Trends in Nonprofit Employment and Earnings: 1990-2004
August 2004
John S. Irons and Gary Bass
OMB Watch

Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Employment Statistics payroll survey between 1990 and 2004, the authors examine the impact of the recession on the nonprofit sector. The authors find that employment in the nonprofit sector held up well during the 2001 recession, but between July 2003 and July 2004, employment only grew by 0.5 percent, compared to an average growth rate of 2.4 percent over the past 15 years. The authors provide a set of explanations for the labor market weakness in the nonprofit sector including that the post-9/11 atmosphere caused an immediate increase in the demand for nonprofit services and in nonprofit employment, that part-time work has increased more than full-time work, or that increases in the costs of nonwage benefits such as health insurance have increased, making it more costly to retain and hire new staff.

http://www.ombwatch.org/budget/pdf/nonprofit_employment_Aug04.pdf

5. Grandma and Grandpa Taking Care of the Kids: Patterns of Involvement
July 2004
Lina Guzman
Child Trends

This research brief provides a statistical overview of child care by grandmothers and grandfathers in the United States. According to the author’s analysis of the National Survey of Families and Households, between 1992 and 1994, 54 percent of grandmothers and 38 percent of grandfathers living near grandchildren under age 13 provided child care to those children. The researcher finds that grandparents are most likely to provide child care if they are employed, are grandparents of preschool-aged children, or live in close proximity to their grandchildren. Approximately one in five of the care-providing grandparents in the study provided child care during both the work and non-work hours of the parents. Many grandparents provide significant hours of child care: in fact, 26 percent of grandmothers who provided care spent 41 hours or more caring for their grandchildren in 2001, according to data from the National Household Education Survey.

http://www.childtrends.org/Files/GrandparentsRB.pdf

This edition of IWPR’s Research News Reporter was prepared by Misha Werschkul.