(Image | by Werner Heiber from Pixabay)
Women in Oregon and across the nation continue to play a crucial role in the workplace of many diverse industries. The State of Oregon Employment Department (OED) stated in a 2021 article that more than 930,000 jobs in Oregon businesses or state and local governments were held by women in 2019. While women represent 49 percent of employed people in Oregon, the share of jobs between men and women can vary greatly, depending on the industry in question.
At the top of the list for industries with high female representation, Oregon has health care and social assistance, educational services, and finance and insurance. Respectively, these industries have 75 percent, 66 percent and 62 percent of their positions filled by women. In contrast, industries like manufacturing, construction, and mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction have relatively low rates of female workers; 28 percent, 19 percent and 15 percent, respectively.
In terms of wages, The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in 2020, Oregon women made, on average, $936 or 83.5 percent of the $1,121 median weekly earnings of their male counterparts. This is an increase since 1998, when women earned close to 70 percent of what men made. Since 2012, the percentage of women’s earnings compared to men has always been at least above 80 percent, with a peak of 87.5 percent in 2016.
Wages, like overall employment, also vary heavily by industry. The industries where women earned the highest average monthly income were management of companies and enterprises ($6,713), utilities ($6,334), and finance and insurance ($5,716). Meanwhile, the industries where women earned the least in terms of average monthly income were arts, entertainment and recreation ($1,900), and accommodation and food services ($1,952). In low earning industries, such as arts, entertainment and recreation, the wage gap has been found to be more severe. Women in this industry earn close to half (51 percent) of what men make.
In terms of job growth, women have seen more of it than men, given that women’s jobs are still growing from a historic deficit. The growth rate in employment for women from 2016 to 2019 was 6.7 percent; slightly higher than that for men, which was 5.7 percent. Women’s employment growth was the highest in transportation and warehousing (29.0 percent), other services (26.2 percent) and construction (22.7 percent).
While the wage gap in Oregon is decreasing, one major factor that keeps it alive is female representation in high-level and executive positions. Women are still less likely to hold positions of management, however, rates are somewhat increasing. Other issues women in the workforce have been facing came from the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting economic shutdowns. A 2020 study by McKinsey & Company found that women, especially women who are also racial minorities, were more likely to be laid off during the pandemic than their male counterparts. The report also states that working mothers who relied on school and childcare to reach financial security and success were severely affected by school and childcare closures.
Another barrier that exists on a national level has been called the “broken rung” between entry-level positions and management. The 2020 report from McKinsey & Company found that for every 100 men promoted to management positions, only 85 women were promoted. For some women, like Black women and Hispanic women, the gap was even larger.
On a national level, how does Oregon stack up? As of 2021, Oregon is ranked 22 for having the smallest wage gap, out of all 50 states. Statistically, we are still near the middle of the pack, but we have surpassed the national average wage gap. More work will need to be done to close the gap, but Oregonians have made significant progress in recent years.
The National Association of Women Business Owners reports the following information about women-owned businesses in the US. There are more than 11.6 million firms owned by women, employing nearly 9 million people and generating $1.7 trillion in sales as of 2017. Women-owned firms account for 39 percent of all privately held firms and contribute 8 percent of employment and 4.2 percent of revenues. 5.4 million firms are majority-owned by women of color in the U.S., and they employ 2.1 million people and generate $361 billion in revenues annually. One in five firms with revenue of $1 million or more is woman-owned. 4.2 percent of all women-owned firms have revenues of $1 million or more.
The United States Census Bureau offers the following information. There were 6,861 more women-owned firms in 2018 than in 2017, up 0.6 percent to 1.1 million, according to the Census Bureau’s most recent Annual Business Survey (ABS). Women-owned employer firms reported nearly $1.8 trillion in sales, shipments, receipts or revenue and employed over 10.1 million workers with an annual payroll of $388.1 billion in 2018. Women-owned firms in the Arts, Entertainment and Recreation sector rose 10.5 percent. Demographic characteristics of the nation’s women-owned firms are similar to their male-owned firm counterparts.
Oregon’s future and our nation’s future will depend on women and overall representation across all sectors in the workforce. Oregon has made great strides in recent years, and as proud as we should be for those strides, there are still improvements that can be made.
