In 2003, full-time working women earned 76% of what men did. (National Women's Law Center, based on 2004 Census Bureau data, Read it)

In 2001, Hispanic women had the lowest earnings compared to white men, on average, earning 54% of white men's earnings. White women earned 75.1%, while Black women earned 66.8% of white men's earnings. (Institute for Women's Policy Research, 2003, Read it, PDF, 150 KB)

In 2003, real median earnings for women working full-time, year-round fell to $30,724, from $30,895 in 2002. The median earnings of comparable men were essentially unchanged, at $40,668.(National Women's Law Center, Read it)

The erosion of the value of the minimum wage is primarily responsible for the widening gap between middle- and low-wage women. (Appelbaum et al., "The Minimum Wage and Working Women," June 18, 2004, Read it, PDF, 250 KB)

Although women make up 48% of the workforce, they represent 61% of the minimum wage workforce. (Appelbaum et al., "The Minimum Wage and Working Women," June 18, 2004, Read it, PDF, 250 KB)

4.5 million female workers would directly benefit from an increase in the minimum wage. (Appelbaum et al., "The Minimum Wage and Working Women," June 18, 2004, Read it, PDF, 250 KB)

For fact sheets:

Business and Professional Women
Center for Women and Work, Rutgers University
Center for Women Policy Studies
National Committee on Pay Equity
National Women's Law Center

For links to reports, papers, and proceedings, click here to READ IT!

Tax cuts have mostly benefited the rich and not helped middle and lower income tax payers, who are disproportionately women. According to an August 2004 report from the Congressional Budget Office, the wealthiest 1% of the population saw their share of the federal income tax burden fall from 22.2% in 2001 to 20.1% of the total income tax. Over that same period, taxpayers with middle incomes saw their share of federal tax payments increase from 18.7% of all taxes to 19.5%. (Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, August 13, 2004; Page A04)

New proposals, including making the tax cut permanent, would provide the top 1% of Americans with 50% of the benefits of the tax cuts. (Fair Taxes for All, Read It)

27% of all taxpayers - the lowest income taxpayers who are disproportionately women - received no benefit from the 2001 tax cuts. This includes almost 50% of all Black and Hispanic single mothers. (National Women's Law Center, Read it, PDF, 370 KB)

For the amount of the $396 billion dividend tax cut in 2003, we could both provide Head Start for all eligible preschool children in need and provide health insurance to all of the 9.2 million kids who do not have health insurance. (National Women's Law Center, Read it, PDF, 214 KB)

Women who own small businesses were not significantly helped by recent tax cuts. More than one-third of the 9.1 million women who own small businesses received tax cuts worth less than $100. (Xu, Samantha, "Effects of Tax Cuts on Small Business Uncertain," Women's eNEWS, July 8, 2004, Read it)

The average tax cut for those with incomes of over $1 million as a result of the tax cuts of 2003 is four times larger than the amount that single mothers with children - with a median income of about $22,000 - earn all year. (National Women's Law Center, Read it, PDF, 214 KB)

For fact sheets:

Business and Professional Women
National Women's Law Center

For links to reports, papers, and proceedings, click here to READ IT!

DID YOU KNOW?

• The Nation's Outstanding Public Debt as of September 2004 is:
  $7,388,649,619,402
• The estimated population of the United States is 294,348,654, so each citizen's share of this debt is $25,101.69.
• Right now, payment of interest on the national debt represents 14% of the U.S. budget.
• The deficit has grown in large part due to recent tax cuts to the very rich, which account for one-third of the overall deficit.

For further information, see:

U.S. National Debt Clock
National Debt
National Council for Research on Women, "Taxes ARE a Women's Issue" (forthcoming)

Based on 2004 Census Bureau data, poverty among adult women reached 12.4%, 40% higher than men's rate. (National Women's Law Center, Read it)

In 2000, "[y]oung black women who were working or looking for work were three times as likely as young white women to be living in poverty." (Women's Research and Education Institute, "The American Woman 2003-2004," Read it)

For fact sheets:

National Women's Law Center

For links to reports, papers, and proceedings, click here to READ IT!

Women's share of part-time employment in the U.S. from 1998 through 2001 was approximately 70%. (International Labor Organization, "Key Indicators of the Labor Market," Third Edition, Geneva, 2003, table 5, Read it)

Women's employment patterns are different. They are more likely to work in part-time jobs that don't qualify for pension coverage, or to work fewer years in pension-covered employment because of interruptions in their careers to take care of family members. (U.S. Department of Labor, "Employee Benefits, Security Administration," Read it)

For fact sheets:

National Women's Law Center
Institute for Women's Policy Research

For links to reports, papers, and proceedings, click here to READ IT!