Release: Working for Women, an Economic Plan to Help American Women

IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 12, 2016

AN ECONOMIC PLAN TO HELP AMERICAN WOMEN
 

Working for Women: A Modern Agenda for Improving Women’s Lives
A Positive Conservative Agenda for Building a Stronger, Healthier Economy – and Securing a Better Future for Women

WASHINGTON, D.C. – While women in America have more opportunities than ever before, significant challenges and hardships remain. Today, millions of American women are jobless; their labor force participation rate is at its lowest level since 1988. Many women aren’t working because they can’t find jobs that pay enough or offer the hours and flexibility that they need. Moreover, everyday living expenses – the cost of goods, services, home, and energy – have steadily increased leaving families stretching their budgets further. 

That’s why today the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) is releasing Working for Women: A Modern Agenda for Improving Women’s Lives. The report presents a slate of policy reforms to improve the workplace and help more women and their families thrive without growing government.

While Democrats are once again using today—“Equal Pay Day”—to convince American women that society is overwhelmingly sexist and more top-down government regulation is necessary to protect women and correct inequities, IWF is providing an alternative vision that empowers women by focusing on job creation, true workplace flexibility, and returning resources to individual women.

“We want to change the conversation,” said Sabrina Schaeffer, IWF’s executive director. “Working for Women lays out an alternative vision for helping women, in which they have more control over the most pressing parts of their lives. Our call to modernize laws and roll-back burdensome labor regulations is the best way to ensure women can pursue their own vision of happiness and success.”

IWF worked with an advisory committee comprised of leading academics, policy experts, and industry specialists and has the support of a wide coalition of leaders in the conservative movement.

The report details 20 specific policy reforms that encourage real workplace flexibility and job creation so that women have truly fulfilling employment opportunities. Most importantly, these policies return resources and control to individuals so that they can make decisions that work best for them.

Working for Women recommendations include:

Reform the Tax Code to Reduce Burdens on Families and Businesses

Fix Tax Brackets to Make Work Pay for More Women

Create More Employment Opportunities for New Workers

Reform Licensing Regimes

Create “Personal Care Accounts” to Encourage Saving for Leave Time

Offer Tax Credits for Small Businesses Providing Leave

Reform the Fair Labor Standard Act

Pause the Overtime Regulations Pending More Study

Pass Compensatory Time for the Private Sector

Allow Employees to Agree to an 80/14 Schedule

Change Direction on Independent Contracting

Remove Other Barriers to Flexible Scheduling

Consolidate and Reform Tax Credits for Children

Eliminate Regulations That Make Day Care Needlessly Expensive

Encourage Saving for Early (and Lifetime) Education

Expand Catch-up Contributions to Retirement Savings Vehicles

Reduce Capital Gains Taxes

Reform Social Security to Protect the Safety Net; Encourage Savings

Strengthen Protections in the Equal Pay Act

Clarify Pregnancy Discrimination Act

“The goal behind Working for Women is to give all women more opportunities to find job opportunities that make sense for them,” said IWF managing director Carrie Lukas. “Instead of creating top-down reforms or expanding government programs, policymakers need to trust individual women and give them more options so they can craft the lives we want.  Of course we want there to be a safety net to protect the most vulnerable members of society.  But government should focus support on them while giving women more freedom to decide how they wish to work and to be compensated, and how to use resources for their families.  This is truly empowering for women.”

Working for Women is available at workingforwomenreport.com

Working for Women press call audio and transcript available HERE.

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www.iwf.org

Independent Women's Forum works to improve the lives of Americans by increasing the number of women who value free-markets and personal liberty. 

MEDIA CONTACT
Victoria Coley | Director of Communications
email: [email protected]
phone: 443.758.6077