We are thrilled to be making available $1.25 million in grant funds to support research and analysis on the development and implementation of paid leave programs at the non-Federal level.

Up to 10 grants of up to $250,000 each will be awarded. Eligible applicants include government entities from states, U.S. territories and possessions, counties and cities with at least 100,000 residents, and federally recognized Indian/Native American tribes with a population of at least 50,000. Click here to view Frequently Asked Questions about the grants. This funding opportunity builds upon a 2014 grant program that awarded a total of $500,000 to support paid leave feasibility studies in three states and the District of Columbia.

Last month also marked the one-year anniversary of the White House Summit on Working Families, which was a catalyst for a national conversation on paid leave and related issues including our Lead on Leave tour and paid leave grants program.

Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) workers have had more favorable economic outcomes than workers in any other racial group. There were about 7.8 million Asian American (AA) women and 442,000 Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander (PI) women 16 years of age and over in the U.S. in 2013. Of those, 4.6 million AA women and 283,000 PI women were in the civilian labor force.

The aggregate statistics, while positive, tell an incomplete story of the economic status within the AAPI community. There is a great deal of variation and disparity between AA women and PI women, as well as among women in different Asian communities. The data in our latest infographic highlight these differences, and compares them to white non-Hispanic women as a reference group in the areas of labor force participation, poverty rate, unemployment rate, earnings/wage gap, occupations and educational attainment. In some cases – to get a more complete picture – we further divided Asian Americans in to the following detailed groups: Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipina, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese (other groups have small estimates and are not included). This analysis unveils a stark contrast between groups within the AAPI community.

Expanding Access to non-traditional occupations

The Women’s Bureau participated in events aimed at expanding access to women in non-traditional occupations.   

• The Women’s Bureau and Middlesex Community College co-hosted a “Women in the Workforce” roundtable discussion in Lowell, Massachusetts on June 8th.  Securing equal pay, increasing entry into higher paying non-traditional occupations, and expanding employment opportunities for women veterans led the list.
  
  
• The Women’s Bureau, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission participated in a roundtable discussion with the Moore Community House, Women in Construction (WIC) program June 12 in Biloxi, Mississippi.
  
  
• Women’s Bureau Director Latifa Lyles facilitated a workshop at the National Fund for Workforce Solutions annual meeting in Baltimore, MD on June 19th.  The workshop, entitled “Preparing Women for Careers: Leveraging Federal Highway Funds” brought together U.S. Department of Transportation Deputy Assistant Secretary Bryna Helfer and Institute for Women’s Policy Research Study Director Ariane Hegewish. 

Additional resources:

2014 Non-Traditional Occupation Data

ApprenticeshipUSA