Economics of Women in the Workforce

by | Jul 15, 2013 | PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook®

Russ: This is PKF Texas Entrepreneur’s Playbook. I’m Russ Capper, this week’s guest host and I’m here once again with Laura Gibson, Labor and Employer Lawyer with Ogden, Gibson, Brooks, Longoria and Hall. Laura, welcome back to the Playbook.

Laura: Thank you, Russ.

Russ: Give me your perspective on this recent statistic that we all learned about very recently that in this era right now 40 percent of households in the United States, the female is the leading breadwinner.

Laura: Unfortunately I think it’s a mixed blessing, Russ. The reason I say that is two-fold. First, while you have more women graduating from college and getting good jobs. The second problem is that generally women are paid less than men and generally women do more than men in the workforce. So when we’re faced with tough economic times like we had in ’08 and ’09, not so much now, but when we get those challenging economic times, it’s in a company’s best interest to lay off the man because they eliminate a more highly compensated employee and by retaining the women, they keep part of their workforce that outperforms in terms of the amount of effort they put into the job.

Laura: I see that a lot in the employment context when employers are making a decision to reduce their workforce, they look at the compensation level that the employees are making and for whatever reason, we as women don’t do a good enough job negotiating for ourselves. Maybe we don’t have enough confidence in our self to demand the price that we should be paid and as a result, we’re a bargain.

Russ: But it sounds like a free enterprise playing out, to a degree, and to a degree, the women benefit from it.

Laura: Well, they have their jobs.

Russ: That’s right.

Laura: They’re supporting their households.

Russ: That’s right.

Laura: They’re doing a disproportionate amount of work in their households. Sometimes it’s better to work smart rather than to work hard and ladies, heed my call.

Russ: Alright. Thank you for that perspective.

Laura: You’re welcome.

Russ: Alright. This has been another Thought Leader Production brought to you by PKF Texas Entrepreneur’s Playbook. Tune in next week for another chapter.

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