The number of people without health insurance dropped last year by 8.8 million, to a total of 33 million, the Obama administration said Wednesday.
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What the New Census Bureau Data Say About Women
The Census Bureau just released new data on poverty in the U.S. in 2014 and here’s the scoop: being a woman puts you at a greater risk of poverty. The odds of being poor are about one-third higher for women than for men, and if you’re a woman of color, a single mother, a woman with a disability, or an older woman living alone, the odds of being poor are even greater. Continued job growth in 2014 failed to significantly lower the overall poverty rate or increase median household income. And the wage gap between women and men remained wide, with women typically making just 79 cents to a man’s dollar.
But today’s data isn’t all bad. Today’s release shows that because of the Affordable Care Act, 90 percent of women and girls have health insurance. The remarkable decline in the proportion of women who lack health insurance extends to women of all races. With affordable health insurance, women have a far better chance of protecting themselves and their families, and today’s numbers show the ACA to be a resounding success.
We’ll be crunching numbers throughout the day, but here’s a first look at poverty, the wage gap, and health insurance coverage among women and their families in 2014:
Poverty among Women and Families
- More than one in seven women, more than 18 million, lived in poverty. The poverty rate among women was 14.7 percent in 2014.
- The poverty rate for adult men in 2014, 10.9 percent, was lower than for women.
- Poverty rates were particularly high for women who head families (39.8 percent), African American women (25.0 percent), Hispanic women (22.8 percent), and women 65 and older living alone (19.7 percent), and women ages 18-64 with a disability (31.9 percent).
- The poverty rate for women 65 and older was 12.1 percent in 2014, compared to 7.4 percent for their male counterparts. More than two-thirds (68.1 percent) of elderly poor are women.
- More than half (56.7 percent) of poor children lived in female-headed families in 2014.
Wage Gap
- Women working full time, year round were paid only 79 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts, statistically unchanged since 2007.
- African American women working full time, year round were typically paid only 60 cents for every dollar paid to their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts, statistically unchanged from 2013.
- Hispanic women working full time, year round were typically paid only 55 cents for every dollar paid to their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts, statistically unchanged from 2013.
- Asian American women working full time, year round were typically paid only 84 cents for every dollar paid to their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts, statistically unchanged from 2013.
- White, non-Hispanic women working full time, year round were typically paid 75 cents for every dollar paid to their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts, statistically unchanged from 2013.
Health Insurance and Medicaid Coverage
- As of 2014, more than 90 percent of women and girls have health insurance.
- Uninsurance among working-age women fell by 4 percentage points between 2013 and 2014, from 17 percent to 13 percent for women ages 18 to 64.
- Women continue to rely more heavily on Medicaid coverage than men. Sixteen percent of adult women ages 18 to 64 are enrolled in Medicaid, compared to 13 percent of adult men. Overall, Medicaid coverage for women in this age group grew by nearly 3 percentage points.
- Direct purchase health insurance — which includes the health insurance Marketplaces — now covers 13.6 million adult women, a 43 percent increase from 2013; 13.6 million women purchased coverage for themselves in 2014.
- Adult women of all races gained health insurance in 2014, with Hispanic women experiencing the greatest gains in proportion to their numbers. However, Hispanic women still have the highest rates of uninsurance among women ages 18-64, with 24 percent going without coverage, compared to 13 percent of white women and almost 15 percent of African American women.
Stay tuned to NWLC’s blog and follow @nwlc on Twitter (#talkpoverty) and Facebook to learn more about what the Census data tells us about how women and their families are faring— and to find out what you can do to help make sure next year’s data show improvements on all fronts.
Surprise! Poverty Increased for College Graduates and Married-Couple Families in 2014
We’re still analyzing the latest Census data, but one of the findings reported by the Census Bureau was particularly striking: people with at least a bachelor’s degree and married-couple families were among the few groups for whom poverty increased in a statistically significant way.
Poverty for married-couple families increased from 5.7 percent in 2013 to 6.2 percent in 2014. The poverty rate for people 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher increased from 4.4 percent in 2013 to 5.0 percent in 2014.
To be sure, the poverty rates for these groups were still substantially lower than the rates for female-headed families and individuals without a college degree. But with all the blaming and shaming of single mothers, these data are a reminder that getting married and graduating from college don’t guarantee that you won’t be poor.
The Wage Gap: Stagnant All These Years
In 2014, women working full time, year round were typically paid 79 cents for every dollar paid to a man, resulting in $10,762 in lost earnings. According to NWLC analysis of new Census Bureau data, not only is this figure about the same as last year’s figure of 78 cents, but the wage gap hasn’t budged in nearly a decade.
The wage gap for many women of color is even larger—with African American women making 60 cents and Hispanic women making 55 cents to their white, male, non-Hispanic counterparts’ dollar.
The stagnant wage gap highlights the need to enact policies that combat barriers that women face in the workplace, including:
Ending pay discrimination. Last week, the Department of Labor issued a final rule that will help combat pay secrecy and pay discrimination for women employed by federal contractors. This is an important step forward since federal contract workers make up 20 percent of the nation’s workforce. But there’s still a long way to go to ensure that all women get equal pay for equal work. Congress should pass the Paycheck Fairness Act to strengthen the Equal Pay Act, empower women to fight pay discrimination, and encourage employers to pay workers equally.
- Raising the federal minimum and tipped minimum wages. The campaign to #RaisetheWage has continued to build momentum this year—with 29 states and the District of Columbia setting their minimum wage above the federal level of $7.25 and several cities following suit. This is good news for women who make up nearly two in three minimum wage workers. States with a higher minimum wage have smaller wage gaps. And raising the federal minimum wage should help shrink the wage gap nationally. Luckily, there’s a bill in Congress that would do just that—raising the federal minimum wage each year to $12 by 2020, and the minimum wage for tipped workers to $3.15 in 2016 and each year thereafter until it equals the regular minimum wage.
- Ensuring that workers with caregiving responsibilities have access to affordable child care and paid sick and family and medical leave. This Labor Day, President Obama signed an executive order requiring federal contractors to provide up to seven days of paid sick leave a year. But there should be a national standard for paid sick leave and family medical leave for those outside the federal contractor workforce. And federal and state policymakers should provide significant new resources for child care so states can effectively implement the Child Care and Development Block Grant reauthorization law—which was approved last fall and aims to ensure the health and safety of child care, improve the quality of care, and make it easier for families to get and retain child care assistance—without reducing the number of families able to receive help paying for care.
- Curbing unfair scheduling practices and enforcing legal protections for women with caregiving responsibilities. Women make up a significant portion of the low-wage workplace, and many of those workplaces have unfair scheduling practices that force mothers and caregivers to choose between meeting their family responsibilities and keeping their jobs. Too often low-wage workers arrive at work only to be told their shift has been cancelled. Every dollar counts for low-wage workers and their families deserve schedules they can rely on.
There have been some positive developments in 2015, but unless more progress is made to help working families, we’ll be back here again next year—with the same, stagnant wage gap.
100 women are marching 100 miles for migrant dignity
100 women continue their march for migrant dignity. (via We Belong Together Facebook page)
Starting yesterday, 100 women began a 100-mile pilgrimage from York County Detention Center to Washington D.C., just in time for the Pope’s arrival. Each woman carries her own story of dealing with our country’s inhumane immigration system: facing deportation herself, living with family members in detention, or being continually excluded from the Obama administration’s deportation relief efforts.
Take Rosi Carrasco, a leader in the movement for migrant rights, who has lived in the country for 20 years yet is still not eligible for deferred action. She has risked deportation multiple times participating in civil disobedience actions to fight for humane immigration policy, and this week, she’ll be doing it again.
Or Ana Cañenguez, who is wearing the same shoes that she wore while walking five days through the desert with her children to cross into the country. She is currently in deportation proceedings, but she is marching. Monique Nguyen’s family, refugees from Vietnam, have all left the US because of rising anti-immigrant sentiment, but she is marching today. Rosario Reyes is marching in the hopes that she will one day be reunited with her son, who she left in El Salvador 12 years ago.
One of the marchers, Juana Flores, remembers the last time the Pope visited her home. She was a nun at the time, living in Oaxaca, Mexico, and she helped to prepare his meals. Now she is co-director of the San Francisco organization Mujeres Unidas y Activas, which provides services to women dealing with intimate partner violence and workplace mistreatment. Juana wrote about her experience as an immigrant in California, and why she is marching today with 99 other women.
“When I came to the United States, I was one of the people [the Pope] describes as “leaving their homelands, with a suitcase full of fears and desires, to undertake a hopeful and dangerous trip in search of more humane living conditions.” I had left the religious life, and brought my two young children with me. Upon arrival, I did not receive the welcome Pope Francis describes as the duty of each country.
With raids happening regularly in my neighborhood in San Francisco, I was scared to leave the house. Street names and new customs were unfamiliar. I saw neighbors taken away and families who had come to escape violence sent back into those precarious situations.
Facing that adversity in Mexico had affirmed my decision to transition to lay life and come to the United States. During the decade I spent in the convent, I was taught dedication, discipline and integrity. But I realized that I had a different calling, to live out God’s mission alongside people and immersed in the daily workings of the world, not removed from it.”
These aren’t just any women who are marching this week. No, the Pope has an army coming at him: 100 courageous and fierce advocates shaking the earth with their march as they call for dignity and justice for migrants everywhere.
Read more about the march and see where participants are stopping along the way.
Chile M8.3 Quake : Pacific Tsunami Watch Issued (Updated)
USGS Screen shot 19:15 hrs 9/16/15
UPDATED WITH Tsunami Alert #3 (at bottom)
#10,530
The USGS is reporting a very large, and relatively shallow earthquake off the coast of Chile. Originally reported as a M7.9, the USGS has just upgraded it to M8.3. There may be further adjustments (up or down) to the intensity of this quake as more readings are analyzed.
While we wait for clarification and word of any damage in Chile, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has issued a Tsunami Watch for the Hawaiian Islands.
BULLETIN
NWS PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER EWA BEACH HI
108 PM HST WED SEP 16 2015TO – EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT IN THE STATE OF HAWAII
SUBJECT – TSUNAMI WATCH
A TSUNAMI WATCH IS ISSUED FOR THE STATE OF HAWAII EFFECTIVE AT
0108 PM HST.AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS
ORIGIN TIME – 1255 PM HST 16 SEP 2015
COORDINATES – 20.0 SOUTH 71.3 WEST
LOCATION – OFF THE COAST OF NORTHERN CHILE
MAGNITUDE – 7.9 MOMENTNOTE THAT THIS MESSAGE REFLECTS A CORRECTION TO THE ORIGIN TIME OF THE EARTHQUAK
EVALUATION
BASED ON ALL AVAILABLE DATA A TSUNAMI MAY HAVE BEEN GENERATED BY
THIS EARTHQUAKE THAT COULD BE DESTRUCTIVE ON COASTAL AREAS EVEN
FAR FROM THE EPICENTER. AN INVESTIGATION IS UNDERWAY TO DETERMINE
IF THERE IS A TSUNAMI THREAT TO HAWAII.IF TSUNAMI WAVES IMPACT HAWAII THE ESTIMATED EARLIEST ARRIVAL OF
THE FIRST TSUNAMI WAVE IS0228 AM HST THU 17 SEP 2015
FURTHER MESSAGES WILL BE ISSUED HOURLY OR SOONER AS CONDITIONS
WARRANT UNTIL THE THREAT TO HAWAII HAS PASSED.
UPDATED: Latest Tsunami Message, with forecasted wave heights across the Pacific.
The largest tsunami waves (> 3 meters) can be expected along the Chilean coast. Smaller amplitude waves are possible elsewhere across the Pacific basin over the next 12 to 18 hours. Follow the link for expected arrival times.
TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER 3NWS PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER EWA BEACH HI
2346 UTC WED SEP 16 2015PRELIMINARY EARTHQUAKE PARAMETERS
———————————* MAGNITUDE 8.3
* ORIGIN TIME 2254 UTC SEP 16 2015
* COORDINATES 31.5 SOUTH 72.0 WEST
* DEPTH 10 KM / 6 MILES
* LOCATION NEAR THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILEEVALUATION
———-* AN EARTHQUAKE WITH A PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE OF 8.3 OCCURRED NEAR THE COAST OF CENTRAL CHILE AT 2254 UTC ON WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 16 2015.
* BASED ON ALL AVAILABLE DATA… HAZARDOUS TSUNAMI WAVES ARE FORECAST FOR SOME COASTS.
TSUNAMI THREAT FORECAST…UPDATED
———————————* TSUNAMI WAVES REACHING MORE THAN 3 METERS ABOVE THE TIDE LEVEL ARE POSSIBLE ALONG SOME COASTS OF CHILE.
* TSUNAMI WAVES REACHING 1 TO 3 METERS ABOVE THE TIDE LEVEL ARE POSSIBLE ALONG SOME COASTS OF FRENCH POLYNESIA.
* TSUNAMI WAVES REACHING 0.3 TO 1 METERS ABOVE THE TIDE LEVEL ARE POSSIBLE FOR SOME COASTS OF
MEXICO… ECUADOR… PERU… ANTARCTICA… JAPAN… NEW CALEDONIA… NEW ZEALAND… MARSHALL ISLANDS… FIJI… SAMOA… AMERICAN SAMOA… COOK ISLANDS… TOKELAU… VANUATU… KIRIBATI… JOHNSTON ISLAND… PALMYRA ISLAND… HOWLAND AND BAKER… TONGA… WALLIS AND FUTUNA… PITCAIRN ISLANDS… NIUE… SOLOMON ISLANDS… RUSSIA… HAWAII… AND NW HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.
* TSUNAMI WAVES ARE FORECAST TO BE LESS THAN 0.3 METERS ABOVE THE TIDE LEVEL FOR THE COASTS OF EL SALVADOR… GUATEMALA… HONDURAS… COSTA RICA… NICARAGUA… PANAMA… COLOMBIA… AUSTRALIA… PHILIPPINES… TAIWAN… CHINA… NORTHERN MARIANAS… GUAM… PALAU… YAP… POHNPEI… CHUUK… KOSRAE… NAURU… WAKE ISLAND… MIDWAY ISLAND… JARVIS ISLAND… TUVALU… PAPUA NEW GUINEA… INDONESIA… VIETNAM… MALAYSIA… AND BRUNEI.
* ACTUAL AMPLITUDES AT THE COAST MAY VARY FROM FORECAST AMPLITUDES DUE TO UNCERTAINTIES IN THE FORECAST AND LOCAL FEATURES. IN PARTICULAR MAXIMUM TSUNAMI AMPLITUDES ON ATOLLS WILL LIKELY BE MUCH SMALLER THAN THE FORECAST INDICATES.
* FOR OTHER AREAS COVERED BY THIS PRODUCT A FORECAST HAS NOT YET BEEN COMPUTED. THE FORECAST WILL BE EXPANDED AS NECESSARY IN SUBSEQUENT PRODUCTS.
Countries Using Child Soldiers Join UK Arms Fair
Credit: Stop the Arms FairBy a Global Information Network correspondentLONDON, Sep 15 2015 (IPS)Human rights and citizen activist groups are criticizing one of the world’s largest arms bazaars, which opened at London’s Docklands Tuesday.Participants in what is officially known as the Defense and Security International (DSEI) include 61 countries that violate human rights, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Angola and Algeria. According to the website, some 30,000 visitors are expected.More than 1,500 companies will exhibit their military wares, including the U.S. and UK giants Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and BAE Systems. Forty foreign governments will have pavilions. Sponsors and co-sponsors of the event include Turkey, South Africa, Northrup Grumman and Hewlett Packard.The four-day fair has drawn furious debate between human rights activists and those who say the arms industry provides thousands of jobs and valuable exports.Citizen activist groups using Twitter and other social media have jumped into action to condemn the fair. Traders at previous arms fairs, they note, have been able to buy and sell equipment used for torture including electric shock stun guns and batons, leg-irons, and belly-, body- and gang-chains. There has also been a range of illegal cluster-munition weaponry advertised at the fair.Nine, companies which have attended the DSEI fair between 2005 and 2013, have breached UK law, according to human rights campaigner Amnesty International.This year’s DSEI comes as the UK government ramps up its effort to sell weapons to countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, by far its most lucrative single arms market.Ryvka Barnard, senior military and security campaigner for the activist group War on Want, took issue with organizers giving Israel a national pavilion where Israeli arms companies exhibit ‘battle tested’ military technology used on Palestinians.The UK headquarters of Amnesty also spoke up: “In the past, torture equipment has been on offer right on our doorstep. Things like illegal leg irons and electric-shock batons have been shamelessly advertised and it’s blindingly obvious the law needs tightening up.“We need strengthened laws – and crucially we need proper enforcement – to stop Britain being used as a showroom for torturers to advertise their disgusting wares…” the group said.Groups organizing on Twitter against arms sales include Stop the Arms Fair!, Stop DSEI, Pax Christi and the Campaign Against Arms Trade, among others.
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