Equal Pay Is Top Issue in AFL-CIO Women’s Survey

WASHINGTON — Equal pay for equal work remains the overwhelming concern of working women, especially women over age 50, according to a survey released Thursday by the AFL-CIO.

The first “Ask a Working Woman” national survey was commissioned by the working women’s department of the labor group. With women now accounting for 5.5 million of its 13 million members, the AFL-CIO says it is the nation’s largest organization of working women.

Karen Nussbaum, head of the working women’s department and a former head of the Labor Department’s Women’s Bureau, said she was surprised by the intensity of the equal-pay issue. She said labor will use the survey results to launch a grass-roots political campaign to make pay equity a public issue, much as labor pushed successfully for a boost in the federal minimum wage last year.

“We’re going to do a long-term, grass-roots campaign that turns this from a private hurt to a public issue once again,” Nussbaum said.

Nearly two-thirds of all the 725 working women questioned in a telephone survey, and more than half the married women queried, said they provided half or more of their family income. Two out of five women surveyed said they were the sole providers in their households.

In addition to the telephone survey, the AFL-CIO distributed questionnaires to women nationwide in various settings, including prayer groups, soccer games, beauty parlors and union halls. The organization received responses from about 50,000 women.

Two-thirds of those who filled out questionnaires were union members, compared with about 12% of the women surveyed by telephone. But the two samples yielded very similar results.

A breakdown of the results showed striking differences in priorities based on race or ethnic background. For example, white, non-Latina women listed equal pay as their major concern in the workplace, but Latinas listed the problems of balancing work and family. African American women listed low pay as their top concern. Asian American women formed the only group that cited discrimination as the major concern.

The telephone survey found that although 94% of the women thought pay equity was “very important,” only 61% said they thought their employers were giving equal pay for equal work.

The gap was similar for those who thought child care was important. While 33% of the women surveyed thought child care was very important, only 8% of the women said their employers provided adequate child-care support.

Nussbaum said the AFL-CIO will start a campaign to push for more child care, particularly for school-age children.

The issue that ranked second-highest overall, after pay equity, was having a safe and healthy workplace, with 93% of the women listing that as very important. But 89% of the women said they thought their employer was providing a safe and healthy workplace.

The third-highest priority was affordable health insurance; 87% listed it as very important.