North Carolina has seen an increase in the number of women who graduate from college and work in managerial and professional positions. The Status of Women in North Carolina report shows some workplace improvements, while also detailing a gender wage gap as well as rise in female poverty and obesity.
Forty seven percent of workers in the state are now women, an all-time high, but females are earning on average just 83 cents for every dollar a man makes. Executive Director of the North Carolina Council for Women Beth Briggs says financial constraints are especially difficult for single mothers
“With an infant, the median cost of child care is 9-thousand dollars; if you have a four-year-old the median cost of child care is seven-thousand, that’s more than the cost of tuition to a public university in this state.”
Briggs hopes the study will serve as a building block for further change at the state legislature and in local communities throughout the state. A similar report was last done in 1996.