Graphic Communicator photo by Susan Zachem

AFL-CIO Executive Vice Pres. Linda Chavez-Thompson urges working women to vote their issues during the Working Women Conference 2000 in Chicago.

Legislators seeking votes from working women need to sharpen their focus on equal pay, paid family leave, improved health care, better pensions and strengthened Social Security, and stronger laws against workplace discrimination.

That was the message from the list of top legislative priorities cited by working women in the AFL-CIO's Ask a Working Woman 2000 Survey.

Addressing the Working Women Conference 2000 in Chicago, AFL-CIO Executive Vice Pres. Linda Chavez-Thompson said every issue cited by women in the survey "depends on politics . . . [I]f we're going to move ahead on those issues that are so important to us and build a better life for ourselves and our families, we need to elect officials who are pro-working women, pro-working family – pro-us."

The release of the survey of 765 working women, conducted by Lake Snell Perry & Associates, is part of the federation's year-long project to highlight women's issues and concerns as the United States heads into the 2000 elections.

Among the common threads linking survey participants' concerns is the stress related to balancing work and family.

One-fourth of the working women surveyed said they hold a job with regular hours at night or on weekends. Nearly half of the survey participants said they work different hours or shifts than their spouses or partners. One-third of the survey participants said they have no control over their work hours.

Many of the women surveyed said they lack the basic job-related benefits that they need for their families' survival. Nearly one-third said they do not have paid sick leave for themselves. More than half of the women surveyed have no paid leave to care for a child or an ill family member. One-fourth said they do not have employer-provided health insurance. About 28 percent said they do not receive pension or retirement benefits at their jobs. Some 74 percent said their employers do not offer child care benefits.

Survey participants' priorities included:

• 87 percent listed stronger equal pay laws as important to them.
• 84 percent said improving health care is important.
• 83 percent of the women surveyed said expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act and providing paid leave is important to them.
• 81 percent said legislation to improve retirement security is important.

The federation said these four top priority issues cut across age, salary, ethnic background, education level, and all other factors.

Other issues cited as important included:

• 70 percent of those surveyed cited laws to improve the quality and lower the cost of child care and after-school care.
• 78 percent said what they most wanted to improve on their jobs is "respect." Eighty-four percent of women making less than $25,000 a year said they need respect on the job.

The AFL-CIO said eight out of 10 of the survey participants said they want to be backed up by a working women's organization that will listen to their concerns and get results.

The survey also demonstrated that unions can help. Among those surveyed, 91 percent of union women said they have employer-provided pension benefits, compared with 66 percent of non-union women workers. Some 88 percent of union women have health insurance benefits, compared with 73 percent of non-union. Some 80 percent of union women felt they have equal pay, compared with 74 percent of non-union. Some 85 percent of the union women said they have paid sick leave, while only 68 percent of non-union women said they have this benefit. Some 59 percent of union women said they have family and medical leave, compared with 39 percent of non-union women.

Karen Nussbaum, director of the AFL-CIO Working Women's Department, said that the survey demonstrates that "women are struggling to balance their families' work schedules at home, and then facing unequal pay and a lack of benefits once they get to their job. That will affect how they vote. We've heard of the elections of the 'Soccer Mom,' the 'Waitress Mom,' and the 'Basketball Mom.' This might well be the year of the 'Super Mom.'"