The Secretary of Labor has issued orders and established committees, both in Washington, D.C., and in regions, to coordinate within the Department of Labor policies and programs as they affect women. Order No. 4-72, issued in January 1972, requires that activities which relate to the varied participation of women in the economic and social development of the Nation be coordinated with the activities of the Women's Bureau; that heads of constituent parts of the Department of Labor involve the Bureau in policymaking matters in which women's interests are involved; that they clear with the Women's Bureau regulations, surveys, proposed legislation, congressional testimony, and Department of Labor publications which may have an impact on Women's Bureau activities; and that they utilize the Bureau's expertise on matters that relate to women's interests. The Director of the Women's Bureau was designated as Special Counselor to the Secretary of Labor for Women's Programs. In August 1973 the Intradepartmental Coordinating Committee, composed of policymaking-level members of major Department of Labor agencies, was established with the objective of utilizing fully the resources of the Department on behalf of women through effective coordination of the Department's activities. Order No. 21-73, issued by the Secretary of Labor on September 12, 1973, requires comparable coordination at the regional level. These national and regional committees have taken the first steps in making the full resources and programs of the Labor Department as available and relevant to women as to men. Department of Labor publications are being reviewed to insure that they do not represent women in a discriminatory way, and formal guidelines are being proposed to insure avoidance of discriminatory language and reflection of the concerns of women. A task force is establishing guidelines to assist agency staff in recognizing bias in legislation and regulations and in suggesting possible remedies for past inequities based on sex. In response to a recommendation from the Advisory Committee on Women to the Secretary of Labor and in anticipation of the ratification of the ERA, all agencies within the Department are examining laws, policies, rules, and regulations they administer in the light of their impact on women. The Labor Department's goal of eliminating all forms of sex discrimination in legislation, regulations, orders, and policies is clearly in harmony with ERA. UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE The following supplements the summary of unemployment insurance benefits provided earlier. The permanent Federal tax rate for unemployment insurance (UI) is now 3.2 percent of the first $4,200 of a worker's annual wages; of this amount, 0.5 percent is the net Federal share and 2.7 percent is offset against State taxes. The Federal unemployment tax revenue is used to pay the administrative expenses of the employment security program and half the costs of extended benefits in periods of high unemployment, and to maintain an account for loans to States whose benefit reserves are depleted. In addition to the Federal-State system, Federal laws provide that separated Federal civilians and ex-service personnel receive unemployment benefits in the same amounts and under the same conditions as if their Federal civilian or military service had been subject to the State law. Benefits are payable for a limited period. Except in Puerto Rico, the maximum duration of regular benefits is 26 weeks or more in a year, but in most States duration may be less than the maximum, depending on the amount of the individual's base-period employment or wages. Major excluded groups are State and local government employees, domestic workers in private homes, farm workers, and employees of nonprofit organizations. Women are an important part of the work force in each group except agriculture. A bill now being considered by the Congress would extend coverage to some farm workers. Four States now cover domestic workers in private homes. The 1963 President's Commission on the Status of Women attributed unemployment insurance limitations on women's protection to the assumption that women are secondary workers, loosely attached to the job market.1 Court cases, State legislation, or re-interpretation of State laws (encouraged by the Department of Labor) have reduced statutory discrimination against women but it has not disappeared. Despite State statutory restrictions and administrative approaches which limit the protection of women workers, about 38 percent of the UI beneficiaries in fiscal year 1972 (July 1971-June 1972) were women. Weekly Benefit Amount. The weekly benefit amount is, generally, 50 percent of weekly wages within statutory minimum and maximum amounts. In most States, however, the maximum is set so low in relation to wages that substantial numbers of claimants have their benefits curtailed by the maximum. Because women's wages generally are lower than men's, however, women workers are less affected by low maximums than are men. Particularly in the 18 States where the maximum represents less than half the average wage in the State, women claimants are also adversely affected by the inadequate maximums. As activities in other areas reduce the job opportunity and wage discriminations against women, the maximum will be of increasing concern to them. Legislation pending before Congress (H.R. 8600) would require a maximum equal to at least 66% percent of the average weekly wage in covered employment in the State. In 1963 the President's Commission on the Status of Women set up a series of seven committees to explore various subjects of particular interest to women. The Committee on Social Insurance and Taxes considered UI. In 1968 the Citizens' Advisory Council on the Status of Women created a Task Force on Social Insurance and Taxes. Some of the recommendations of these two groups against discrimination, referred to as the 1963 Committee and the 1968 Task Force, are discussed later. Statutory Barriers Against Women Claimants. Since 1971 the number of States with statutory provisions designed to deny compensation to those who are unable or unwilling to work but which in fact explicitly or implicitly discriminate against women has decreased from 42 to 32. Explicit discriminations relate to pregnancy and to the payment of additional allowances for dependents. Implicit provisions that preponderantly discriminate against women deny benefits to workers who leave a job because of domestic or family obligations.. The most common statutory barriers, now found in 31 States, deal with pregnancy. The special provisions arise out of the difficulties of determining the benefit eligibility of pregnant women. A pregnant woman who is physically unable to work, or does not want to work, is not eligible for benefits under the normal eligibility provisions. How long before and after confinement a woman is unable to work depends on her health and the nature and physical demands of her job. Pregnant women, like other workers, lose their jobs or are temporarily unemployed for economic reasons. Part of the difficulty arises from the assumption that a pregnant woman is not truly available for work because employers would be reluctant to hire her. Availability, however, should be measured by the individual's readiness and willingness to accept work. Difficult policy problems are immediately presented when availability is made to depend on employer willingness to hire individuals in the claimant's category-whether the category is pregnant women, older workers, or members of minority groups. Following issuance of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Guidelines on Discrimination Because of Sex, effective April 5, 1972, the number of States with special provisions dealing with the benefit rights of pregnant women has been reduced and some have modified their disqualifications. The guidelines provide that “A written or unwritten employment policy or practice which excludes from employment applicants or employees because of pregnancy is in prima facie violation of title VII." (Section 1604.10 (e), Federal Register, Vol. 37, No. 66, Wednesday, April 5, 1972, p. 6837.) The provisions remaining vary considerably. Some States distinguish between a woman who left work voluntarily during pregnancy and one who was laid off, while others recognize no such distinction. Some start the disqualification whenever unemployment is due to pregnancy; others establish a fixed period, ranging from 4 weeks to 4 months before the anticipated date of childbirth. After termination of pregnancy, some States provide a fixed period; some require a specified amount of reemployment; and others only require evidence of ability to work and search for work. Most provisions deny benefits without regard to the woman's ability to work, her availability for work, or her efforts to find work. Several courts have now declared such provisions unconstitutional. Even without the specific disqualification, very few pregnant women get benefits. A study by a State that does not have a special provision revealed that of every eight women who, for any reason, stopped working during pregnancy, only one filed a claim for benefits. Of the pregnant claimants, 8 out of 10 had been laid off. About 60 percent of those who drew benefits during pregnancy had substantial employment in each of the preceding 3 years, and about 40 percent were already working mothers. Less than 1 percent of all benefits paid in the State were paid to pregnant claimants. Deletion of special pregnancy disqualifications does not necessarily remove all the unemployment benefit problems of pregnant women. Some employers provide that a pregnant woman may take a leave of absence. Four State courts have held that employees placed on maternity leave in accordance with collective bargaining provisions have voluntarily left without good cause attributable to their employment and, hence, are ineligible for benefits until they return to work and are subsequently separated for qualifying reason. Women who unsuccessfully apply to their employers for reemployment before termination of the leave of absence are held ineligible for the duration of the leave of absence. Both the 1963 Committee and the 1968 Task Force recommended that: "Disqualifications from unemployment compensation in respect to pregnancy and maternity should be based on reasonable tests of the ability and capacity of the individual to work and should not be determined by arbitrary time periods before and after birth which do not fit the variation in physical ability of women workers, in types of job and in working conditions." Domestic and Marital Obligations. Unemployment insurance laws have always recognized that there are circumstances under which workers are justified in leaving their jobs, so that even a system designed to compensate involuntary unemployment should pay benefits if a worker cannot find another job. The laws also recognized that personal circumstances might take a normally employed person out of the active labor force temporarily, so that the determination of a claimant's availability to work should be made week by week. At one time the provisions that a worker was not disqualified if he or she left voluntarily for good cause generally defined good cause as including personal circumstances. At present, however, 27 States limit good cause to cause related to the job. Some States have added specific disqualifications for workers who leave their jobs to marry, to move with their spouse, or to perform marital, filial, or domestic obligations. These disqualifications are unnecessary because the normal voluntary quit and availability requirements provide an adequate basis for denying benefits. They are undesirable because they preclude consideration of whether the individual is prevented by domestic obligations from being available for work. Thirteen States have more severe disqualification rules for workers who leave their jobs for one or more of those family-related reasons than those who quit voluntarily. Two additional States specify that an individual who left for one of those reasons is deemed unavailable for work until reemployed. None now specify that these disqualifications can be applied only to women claimants. Two years ago 23 States had some such provision, and 7 specified that they applied only to women. The people disqualified under these provisions are almost exclusively women. A waiver or modification of the disqualification for claimants who are the sole or major support of the family is in six State laws. This assists proportionately more men than women. Both the 1963 Committee and the 1968 Task Force recommended that: "Disqualifications from unemployment compensation for voluntarily leaving work of moving to accompany or be with spouse is not denied benefits for weeks when he or Dependents' Allowances. Most State benefit formulas determine a worker's benefits by his or her past wages, but in 11 States additional amounts may be paid because of dependents. In all 11 States the allowances operate for the greater benefit of men than of women. In general, they are paid only for specified relatives who are wholly or mainly supported by the claimant. Children are defined as dependents in all 11 laws; 7 include nonworking spouses and 2 include other relatives who are unable to work. Since a woman's wages are generally lower than her husband's, the requirement that the claimant provide more than half the support eliminates many working wives, even those whose wages are essential to the family's support. The impact of dependents' allowance provisions on women claimants is, moreover, not limited to the reflection of actual wage differences. Some State laws require special proof or circumstances before a wife can claim allowances for her children. Whether or not the law contains such language, there is in the administration of the program a tendency to accept at face value a father's statement that he has dependent children, but to require the mother to prove it. There have been cases in which widows have been denied dependents' allowances because the children were receiving survivors' benefits under social security. Despite the fact that at least 20 percent of working wives provide 40 percent of their families' incomes and that there are several million women heads of families in the labor force, over half of the men in States that provide dependents' allowances receive such allowances compared with only 8 percent of the women claimants. The 1968 Task Force on Social Insurance and Taxes considered dependents' allowances, and concluded that: “In a wage loss insurance system, provision of additional allowances because of depend- Qualifying Requirement and New Entrants. As one way to limit benefits to those with a substantial and continuing attachment to the labor force, all UI laws contain an eligibility requirement in terms of recent past covered employment. Generally from 14 to 20 weeks of employment (or its equivalent in wages) is required in a base period, which ends from 3 to 6 months before the claim for benefits. Therefore, a new entrant or reentrant into the labor force has no protection against unemployment for a period of 9 months to a year after the first day of work. The qualifying requirement means that the system does not protect those who are entering or reentering the labor force. Because of their lack of experience or seniority, these new entrants and reentrants may have particularly difficult employment problems. Employers pay Federal and State UI taxes on the wages of part-time workers. About 3 out of 4 part-time workers work 15 or more hours a week, enough to qualify for benefits. Generally, however those who work part time for personal rather than economic reasons would not be entitled to benefits if they lost their jobs, because the requirement of availability is interpreted to mean availability for full-time work. This historic UI attitude toward the availability of part-time workers is rooted in a period when parttime work generally was due to economic circumstances. Voluntary part-time work was so far outside the mainstream of work that those performing it could not reasonably be considered to be substantially attached to the labor force. These assumptions and attitudes do not reflect the fact that more and more such industries build their employment plans around the permanent use of part-time workers. SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS The following information supplements the discussion of social security benefits provided earlier. Equal contributions to the social security system are required of the employer and the employee. At the outset, the social security tax rate was 1 percent of the first $3,000 in wages for a maximum of $30. At present, employers and employees each pay 5.85 percent (including .90 percent for hospital insurance) of up to $14,100 a year; the maximum annual tax is $824.85. When the system was inaugurated, the largest monthly benefit for a retired worker was $85. The maximum monthly benefit payable on the basis of one worker's participation in 1974 was $557.50; the minimum for an individual was $93.80. The number of quarters of work credit needed for social security retirement or survivors' benefits depends on the worker's age, but in no case does it exceed 40. The law defines “retirement age” at 65 years. Retirement as early as age 62 can be elected with a permanent reduction in benefits. Persons who choose to work past retirement age get a "bonus" of 1 percent in their retirement benefits for each year of work up to age 72, but until that age their benefits are reduced by $1 for each $2 earned over a certain amount. There is a special minimum retirement benefit for persons who have had low earnings during long years of social security coverage. Disability benefits in the same amount as retirement benefits are payable beginning the sixth full month of a physical or mental impairment that can be expected to result in death or to last at least 12 months. There are minimum service requirements for eligibility for disability benefits: 11⁄2 years of work in the preceding 3 years for those disabled before age 24; half the time between age 21 and disability for those between 24 and 31. Older workers must have as much credit as they would need if they reached retirement age the year they become disabled. The wife of a beneficiary is entitled at age 65 to a benefit equal to half of her spouse's. Beginning at age 62, such a wife may elect to start drawing benefits at a permanently reduced rate. There is no minimum age for benefits for the wife who has children entitled to benefits. The social security contributions of a married woman worker do not provide income for her husband when she retires or becomes disabled, unless she has supplied at least half his support. Survivors' benefits are payable to (a) unmarried children under 18 (22 if full-time students, or older if severely disabled before age 22); (b) a widow or dependent widower 60 or older; (c) widow under 60, or former wife, if she is caring for a deceased worker's child under age 18; (d) widow or dependent widower 50 or older who becomes disabled within 7 years of the worker's death, or within 7 years after a widow stops getting checks for caring for the worker's children; and (e) dependent parent age 62 or older. For the widow or dependent widower who does not draw benefits until age 65, the benefit is 100 percent of the worker's entitlement. Divorced wives are eligible for benefits if their marriage to an insured worker lasted 20 years or more. An individual may not simultaneously receive benefits as a retired worker and as a spouse or widow/ dependent widower, but is entitled to the more advantageous benefit. EXPLANATION OF STATISTICAL SURVEYS-Part 3 The labor force and employment statistics in this report are primarily compiled from three major sources: (1) household interviews; (2) reports from employers; and (3) the Decennial Census. Also included in this report are transactions of the public Employment Service obtained from the Employment Security Automated Reporting System. Data based on household interviews are obtained from a sample survey of the population 16 years of age and over. The survey is conducted each month by the Bureau of the Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics and provides comprehensive data on the labor force, the employed and the unemployed, including such characteristics as age, sex, color, marital status, occupations, hours of work, and duration of unemployment. The survey also provides data on the characteristics and past work experience of those not in the labor force. The information is collected by trained interviewers from a sample of about 47,000 households, representing 461 areas in 923 counties and independent cities, with coverage in 50 States and the District of Columbia. The data collected are based on the activity or status reported for the calendar week including the 12th of the month. Data based on establishment (employers) records are compiled each month from mail questionnaires by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in cooperation with State agencies. The establishment surveys are designed to provide detailed industry information on nonagricultural wage and salary employment, average weekly hours, average hourly and weekly earnings, and labor turnover for the Nation, States, and metropolitan areas. The employment, hours, and earnings series are based on payroll reports from a sample of establishments employing over 30 million nonagricultural wage and salary workers. The data relate to all workers, full- or part-time, who received pay during the payroll period which includes the 12th of the month. Based on a somewhat smaller sample, labor turnover data relate to actions occurring during the entire month. Relation Between the Household and Establishment Series The household and establishment data supplement one another, each providing significant types of information that the other cannot suitably supply. Population characteristics, for example, are readily obtained only from the household survey whereas detailed industrial classifications can be reliably derived only from establishment reports. Data from these two sources differ from each other because of differences in definition and coverage, sources of information, methods of collection, and estimating procedures. Sampling variability and response errors are additional reasons for discrepancies. The major factors which have a differential effect on levels and trends of the two series are as follows: Coverage. The household survey definition of employment comprises wage and salary workers (including domestics and other private household workers), self-employed persons, and unpaid workers who worked 15 hours or more during the survey week in family operated enterprises. Employment in both agricultural and nonagricultural industries is included. The payroll survey covers only wage and salary employees on the payrolls of nonagricultural establishments. Multiple jobholding. The household approach provides information on the work status of the population without duplication since each person is classified as employed, unemployed, or not in the labor force. Employed persons holding more than one job are counted only once and are classified according to the job at which they worked the greatest number of hours during the survey week. In the figures based on establishment records, persons who worked in more than one establishment during the reporting period are counted each time their names appear on the payroll. |