61% of women at work in Ohio

The number of Ohio women who are the primary
breadwinner keeps rising.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Sunita Clark is like many a working mom. She rushes home from her job as a health claims processor to spend time with her 10-year-old daughter, Ruby.

Too little time, she says, before it’s off to her second job as a cashier at Home Depot.

“A typical day is I work, I have time to pick her up after school, get her something to eat and walk out the door,” she said.

Clark, 36, said she’s had to hold two jobs since her husband, Mark, was laid off from his truck-driving job. He now works as a groundskeeper at a golf course, but it’s not enough to pay the mortgage, car loan and other household bills that total about $2,250 a month. The family’s income is about $32,000 a year, she said.

She is one of a growing number of Ohio women who are the primary family breadwinner. A study released just in time for Labor Day says that in 2006, more Ohio women over age 16 than ever — 61 percent — were working, up from less than half in 1979.

The study by Policy Matters Ohio, a labor-backed advocacy group based in Cleveland, said the male work force declined over the same period from nearly 80 percent to 73 percent, and two-parent families increased their working hours by 17 percent.

Wage gap

Men still earn more than women doing the same jobs, but the gap is narrowing, and women in Ohio are earning more than ever, the study found. The median wage for men was $16.15 an hour in 2006, while the median women’s wage was $13.16.

“We definitely are seeing more women in the labor force and more families where both parents are working and the hours are increasing,” Policy Matters Ohio director Amy Hanauer said.

Women — and men — felt the sting of the recession earlier this decade, but employment for women is on the rise, Hanauer said.

“It turns out, now that the recession is over, that women’s participation is back up over its pre-recession levels,” Hanauer said.

Clark’s day begins at the claims office, where she works about 20 hours a week at a job she’s held for nine years. She clocks 25 hours a week at Home Depot. That makes it difficult on her family, she said. In between jobs, she also finds time to work with her daughter’s Girl Scout troop and help coach her soccer team.

Her husband was laid off 18 months ago from the truck-driving job he held for 33 years, she said.

“Part of the biggest challenge we have with me working three or four nights a week is my husband helping with my daughter,” Clark said. “I obviously can’t continue working two part-time jobs because its very wearing on my family and it’s very tiring.”

Clark hopes her experience in insurance can lead to a career where she works just one job. But right now, her family needs her, she said.

“I’ve been with my husband for 111⁄2 years. Every marriage has its ups and downs, for richer, for poorer. Now it’s my turn,” she said.