United Women’s Empowerment (United WE), a nonprofit organization based in Kansas City, and the Institute for Policy and Social Research at the University of Kansas released a report earlier this month showing that gender inequality has grown in our state since 2016.
Women’s labor supply and employment has been hugely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years. Increased caregiving responsibilities and the closure of in-person schools and daycare centers have forced many women caregivers out of the labor force.
Additionally, women in Kansas are more likely to work in sectors that were subject to layoffs due to the pandemic.
Nationally, current women’s employment numbers mirror those of 1987 according to the US Department of Labor — regressing 30 years of progress in the period since March 2020
Furthermore, the gender pay gap has widened in Kansas over the past five years. According to the United WE and KU report, on average, Kansas women make 78 cents for every dollar Kansas men make, though that gap varies across the state — in some rural areas it drops to 51 cents for every dollar. The national average is 82 cents per dollar.
The result is a $11,000 difference in median earnings between women and men in Kansas. Furthermore, Kansas women earn less regardless of education level and location.
Poverty disproportionately affects women and children because of women’s lower earnings and single-mother households.
Kansas officials have lamented the state’s struggle to appeal to young people, a necessary demographic for the state’s economy. If the state wants to keep young people here and encourage others to make Kansas their home, it must address these issues.
Young people are leaving Kansas in droves, especially the state’s rural areas.
Last year a survey from the Kansas Sampler Foundation and the Kansas Office of Prosperity found that young people were leaving due to lack of childcare, internet access, and housing. The state’s resistance to change on social issues certainly hasn’t helped either.
Access to childcare is a problem for both urban and rural Kansans. 104 of the state’s 105 counties have a higher demand for childcare than availability. The supply and demand issue raises childcare costs and prices many women out of the workforce.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, childcare is affordable if it costs no more than 7% of a family’s income.
However, in Kansas about 29% of a working mother’s salary is spent on childcare costs alone, making Kansas childcare costs as a percentage of salary one of the highest in the country.
Infant care costs in our state exceed the expense of full-time college tuition at a public university, and childcare costs for kids under the age of four are about equal to full-time public university tuition costs.
The United WE and KU report highlights the economic research that indicates women are drawn into the labor force by higher wages and lower childcare costs. The report concludes “Kansas has the ingredients necessary to expand the economy, but alternative policies that facilitate the empowerment of Kansas women and the growth of the Kansas economy should be implemented.”
