by Lonna Szczesny

With employment assistance, women without college degrees can close wage gap and get jobs, even in this tough economy

While there’s a lot of discussion in the media about the extraordinary effects this recession has had on employment, we often forget that women are still lagging far behind men in terms of average income.

This is particularly true of men and women with only high school diplomas; nationally, these men earn on average $13.42 an hour compared to women who earn on average only $10.19 an hour, according to the U.S Department of Labor.

My organization, Women in Transition, regularly sees the effects of this wage gap because we work with women who are unemployed or underemployed and generally have low levels of education and work experience.

But I’m happy to report that over the past 30 years, there has been significant progress in employment options for low-income women. Twenty years ago, 70 percent found employment at an average annual wage of $16,640 or $8.00 per hour. Now, 81 percent of Women in Transition participants completing our Job Search component found employment within 90 days at an average annual wage of $30,763 or $14.80 per hour.

Despite rumors to contrary, good jobs are available

I’m also happy to report that for those who step forward and get employment assistance, there are jobs. The unemployment reports are causing people to give up their job searches. Some are frozen in place. But the goal of our program is to place women within 90 days, and we are seeing this happen with good jobs on a regular basis.

Women in Transition is part of Employment Action Center (EAC), a division of RESOURCE (www.resource-mn.org), which will soon be celebrating its 50th anniversary. Although my program works primarily with low-income women, RESOURCE also has programs for men and other unemployed workers at all skill and income levels. My colleagues who work in those programs also report that those individuals getting employment assistance are finding jobs faster than those not receiving employment assistance and at salary levels that are commensurate with their former positions.

Group services appeal to women

Group workshops are our core services. We’ve discovered that many women prefer group services because this provides an opportunity to meet and be supported by other women facing similar life and work struggles. Today, we serve nearly 300 women annually and have served 9,500 metro area women since 1979.

Though Minnesota leads the nation in the percentage of women in the workforce, Women in Transition still sees many women who have very little or no work history and now have to support themselves financially. In addition to job search strategies workshops, we offer a strong personal empowerment component that focuses on assertive communication.

Many of our participants have kept in touch with us over the years. They always remember the role we played in helping them find employment or better employment. And they refer their friends and relatives to us.

We’ve come a long way, but until we erase the $6,500 annual wage gap between male and female high-school graduates, we must continue to provide appropriate employment supports for these women.

Lonna Szczesny is the director of Women in Transition. She can be reached at lszczesny@resource-mn.org. For more information about the program, please call 612-752-8444 or visit www.RESOURCE-MN.org