For Immediate Release: October 8, 2024
Contact: Sean O’Leary, (304)-400-8899
Charleston, WV – Each year the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy releases our annual State of Working West Virginia report, which examines the Mountain State’s economy through the lens of its workers—the people who power our state and economy. While each year’s report has a slightly different focus, one consistent theme is the need to ask this simple question: How are the people who do the work faring?
This year’s edition, the 17th installment in our State of Working West Virginia series, focuses on the state of women in and around West Virginia’s workforce.
Over the past few decades, declining unemployment and rising labor force participation have improved the outlook for women in West Virginia’s workforce. But many disparities exist today—lower wages, higher poverty rates, and caregiving responsibilities still burden women disproportionately. While many of these issues are common throughout the United States, they are particularly taxing in West Virginia. In their 2023 report, Oxfam ranked West Virginia as the seventh-worst state for working women.
“Unemployment is near historic lows in West Virginia and nationally, but some groups don’t fare as well as others due to longstanding structural barriers and inequities in access to opportunity,” says report author and WVCBP senior policy analyst, Sean O’Leary. “Despite changes over the decades, a gap between men and women persists regarding labor force participation, wages, poverty, and overall economic security.”
West Virginia has some of the lowest wages in the country. The state’s median hourly wage of $21.65 ranks 45th among the 50 states and D.C. and is $2.33 below the national average; meanwhile, the median hourly wage for women specifically in West Virginia is $19.93, also ranking 45th in the country. At the median hourly wage, West Virginia women earn $0.86 for every $1.00 West Virginia men earn. Notably, men earn more than women at every wage level.
This disparity in wages can partially be explained by the industries in which women often work. The industry that employs the most women, elementary and secondary schools, paid an average weekly wage of $584 in 2023, while the industry with the greatest concentration of women, child day care services, paid an average weekly wage of $462 in 2023. In comparison, the average weekly wage for all industries was $1,069 in 2023.
The lower wages earned by women translate into lower incomes and less economic security over a lifetime. Women’s lower earnings do not just affect them individually—they also impact their families.
West Virginia has historically had one of the highest poverty rates in the country and many workers find themselves in poverty despite maintaining a job. Just under 26,000 women who are employed are also living in poverty, creating a poverty rate for employed women of 7.5 percent. In comparison, the poverty rate for employed men is 5.2 percent.
Just under half of West Virginian women are not participating in the labor force, meaning they are neither working nor seeking work. But it is essential to note that just because women aren’t participating in the formal labor force does not mean they are not laboring or contributing to society and the economy. Of the West Virginian women not in the formal labor force, and who are not retired, over half report caring for home and family, while just under 40 percent are in school.
The financial implications of not being paid for caregiving work are significant. The average child care worker in West Virginia earned the already far-too-low wage of $462 per week in 2023. Over the course of a year, that is equivalent to $24,024. For the 66,500 women in West Virginia who do not participate in the formal labor force due to caring for home or family, this unpaid care work is worth just under $1.6 billion annually.
In West Virginia, half of non-full-time working parents say they would go back to work if their child had access to quality child care at a reasonable cost. West Virginia’s child care supply is severely limited, meaning even families who can afford child care face accessibility challenges. Limited public investment is a driver of too few child care subsidies, child care deserts, and poor wages for child care workers in the state.
Our report concludes with some policy recommendations that could address the inequities women experience and improve the lives of families and workers in the state more broadly:
Women face numerous challenges in West Virginia’s workplaces. Making work safer, better compensated, more flexible, and more just is important to improving the lives of these workers. With women making up half of the state’s population yet carrying a disproportionate burden of caring, domestic, and low-wage work, an equitable workplace for women means a better and stronger economy for all West Virginians.
Read the full report.
