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As the economic downturn intensified over the last year, previous gains in women’s wages disappeared. From 2007 to 2008, real wages for full-time women workers fell by 2 percent – twice the rate of male workers’ wages.
“We must have a more aggressive strategy to close the wage gap to ensure that both men and women are able to earn a living and keep themselves and their children out of poverty,” said Congressman Bob Filner (D-San Diego).
Filner is the only member of San Diego's Congressional delegation to join with 25 House colleagues in signing a letter urging U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to recalculate the minimum number of Federal contract work hours that must be completed by women, as set by the Office of Federal Contracting Compliance (OFCCP) in the regulations implementing Executive Order 11246.
The OFCCP standard for women, which has remained at 6.9% of total work hours since 1980, was specifically designed to increase the participation of women in the construction industry. However, since the standard has not been expanded in almost 30 years, it is a woefully inadequate reflection of the current availability of qualified women to perform jobs in non-traditional occupations (NTOs).
Benefits for women in NTOs, such as construction and the trades, include higher wages and more established career ladders. Industry apprenticeships also offer opportunities to ‘earn while you learn,’ which represent an important path towards economic self-sufficiency for individuals who cannot afford to stop working in order to obtain further education.
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