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Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Medicaid cuts risk worsening Black maternal health crisis
Advocates are warning lawmakers that the proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid will leave millions of pregnant Black women at a heightened risk of death, worsening the maternal mortality crisis and its racial disparities. Last month, the House budget resolution proposed up to $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid over a decade, which would also lead to cuts to Medicare. But advocates say Medicaid is a vital resource for cutting into the maternal mortality disparities. 'We often see these cuts as: We're making sure that people who 'don't deserve' these programs are not getting it. But in actuality, it's disproportionately going to impact people of color, women of color,' Rolonda Donelson, Huber Reproductive Health Equity legal fellow at the National Partnership for Women & Families, told The Hill. While Medicaid finances about 40 percent of all births nationwide, more than 64 percent of births by Black moms are covered by Medicaid. Still, Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. Some of these conditions include preeclampsia, postpartum hemorrhaging and blood clotting. Eighty percent of those deaths are preventable, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For Natasha Ewell, Medicaid allowed her to safely deliver her third child. When Ewell was pregnant with her son, she felt what many Black women feel: excitement, happiness — and worry. Ewell was over 35, so she was already a high-risk patient. Then Ewell unexpectedly lost her job, and with it, her insurance. Desperate for coverage, she enrolled in Medicaid. In her first trimester, Ewell was diagnosed with oligohydramnios, a condition characterized by low amniotic fluid. The results of oligohydramnios can be drastic, sometimes affecting fetal development or causing complications during labor and delivery. In some cases, oligohydramnios can cause stillbirth. When Ewell's doctor discovered her diagnosis, he scheduled her for weekly checkups to ensure both she and her son were healthy and safe. 'It was very important for me to have that insurance, because having to go weekly – I can't imagine the co-pays for that. And these were specialists that I had to see,' Ewell said. 'It would have been a scarier pregnancy. This condition, it wasn't like leaking or spotting. If my fluid was low, I didn't have ways to check that. I wouldn't have known.' Ewell eventually delivered a healthy baby — several weeks early via c-section — but she says without public health insurance she doesn't know if that would have happened. The proposed cuts, she said, have her increasingly worried for future mothers, as it could force them to make a decision: risk the pregnancy and potential financial devastation, or terminate. 'I cannot imagine not having my son here. Who are they to make me have that choice between having this wonderful, amazing young boy that loves robotics, that's going to be part of the next generation, and who knows what he's going to be able to do?' Ewell said. Medicaid's coverage of prenatal care is vital to closing the gaps in the maternal mortality crisis, said Stacey Brayboy, senior vice president of public policy and government affairs at March of Dimes. Medicaid's prenatal care can help cover not only screenings like Ewell needed each week, but can also help track pregnant people's cardiovascular health, risks for preeclampsia, high blood pressure and glucose levels — all chronic stressors that can cause preterm births. 'The idea is to look at how we decrease the effects of preeclampsia and preterm birth and look at a lot of other pregnancy related tests to your pregnancy journey,' said Brayboy. Not only could this help close the racial disparities in the maternal mortality crisis, but also the infant mortality crisis where Black babies are more than two times likely to die than their white counterparts. But Medicaid cuts could also rollback gains made in recent years to expand the insurance's coverage postpartum. March of Dimes was among several organizations that successfully advocated for Medicaid to expand postpartum care from 90 days to a full year. That's because deaths from heart conditions and mental health–related conditions are most common in the year following delivery. But at least 10 states have trigger laws, Brayboy said, which would eliminate the extended postpartum care. Brayboy is also concerned over what conditions may no longer be able to be studied with the proposed cuts. 'Those cuts are going to impact research, and research helps drive some of the policy changes,' said Brayboy. 'These Medicaid proposed cuts are going to roll back all the progress that we've made and have a ripple effect. It's not going to just be isolated cuts; this will go across the entire maternal health ecosystem.' There are members of Congress who are trying to create policies to cement research to end the Black maternal health crisis. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) told The Hill she is working with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) to build support for their Mommies Act. The act would expand Medicare cover for pregnancy, labor and postpartum services, along with directing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to issue guidance encouraging community-based doula care. The Act would also increase Medicaid minimum reimbursement rates for maternal and obstetric services for people in underserved areas and establish a maternity care home model demonstration project. 'Policy determines who lives, who dies, who survives and who thrives,' Pressley, a member of the Black Maternal Health Caucus, told The Hill. 'I am not being hyperbolic when I say these layered crises created by policy violence and neglect are a death sentence for Black moms.' Pressley said the Black maternal health crisis is personal to her — her paternal grandmother died in the 1950s giving birth to her uncle. 'It was incredibly devastating and destabilising for our family. You talk about generational trauma — every woman in their reproductive years has been told that story,' said Pressley. 'I cannot believe my grandmother suffered a fate that was preventable in the 1950s and here we stand in 2025 with the same devastating disparate outcomes.' Advocates say most of the work to combat the Medicaid cuts must come from Congressional leaders. But Donelson, of the National Partnership for Women & Families, added that families must come forward too. 'I think it's important for people who get their insurance through Medicaid, or have benefited from Medicaid in the past, to call their members of Congress, write to their members of Congress, post on social media and make a lot of noise about how Medicaid has benefited them and their families and how this program is critical to their health care,' said Donelson. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
20-04-2025
- Health
- The Hill
Medicaid cuts risk worsening Black maternal health crisis
Advocates are warning lawmakers that the proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid will leave millions of pregnant Black women at a heightened risk of death, worsening the maternal mortality crisis and its racial disparities. Last month, the House budget resolution proposed up to $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid over a decade, which would also lead to cuts to Medicare. But advocates say Medicaid is a vital resource for cutting into the maternal mortality disparities. 'We often see these cuts as: We're making sure that people who 'don't deserve' these programs are not getting it. But in actuality, it's disproportionately going to impact people of color, women of color,' Rolonda Donelson, Huber Reproductive Health Equity legal fellow at the National Partnership for Women & Families, told The Hill. While Medicaid finances about 40 percent of all births nationwide, more than 64 percent of births by Black moms are covered by Medicaid. Still, Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. Some of these conditions include preeclampsia, postpartum hemorrhaging and blood clotting. Eighty percent of those deaths are preventable, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For Natasha Ewell, Medicaid allowed her to safely deliver her third child. When Ewell was pregnant with her son, she felt what many Black women feel: excitement, happiness — and worry. Ewell was over 35, so she was already a high-risk patient. Then Ewell unexpectedly lost her job, and with it, her insurance. Desperate for coverage, she enrolled in Medicaid. In her first trimester, Ewell was diagnosed with oligohydramnios, a condition characterized by low amniotic fluid. The results of oligohydramnios can be drastic, sometimes affecting fetal development or causing complications during labor and delivery. In some cases, oligohydramnios can cause stillbirth. When Ewell's doctor discovered her diagnosis, he scheduled her for weekly checkups to ensure both she and her son were healthy and safe. 'It was very important for me to have that insurance, because having to go weekly – I can't imagine the co-pays for that. And these were specialists that I had to see,' Ewell said. 'It would have been a scarier pregnancy. This condition, it wasn't like leaking or spotting. If my fluid was low, I didn't have ways to check that. I wouldn't have known.' Ewell eventually delivered a healthy baby — several weeks early via c-section — but she says without public health insurance she doesn't know if that would have happened. The proposed cuts, she said, have her increasingly worried for future mothers, as it could force them to make a decision: risk the pregnancy and potential financial devastation, or terminate. 'I cannot imagine not having my son here. Who are they to make me have that choice between having this wonderful, amazing young boy that loves robotics, that's going to be part of the next generation, and who knows what he's going to be able to do?' Ewell said. Medicaid's coverage of prenatal care is vital to closing the gaps in the maternal mortality crisis, said Stacey Brayboy, senior vice president of public policy and government affairs at March of Dimes. Medicaid's prenatal care can help cover not only screenings like Ewell needed each week, but can also help track pregnant people's cardiovascular health, risks for preeclampsia, high blood pressure and glucose levels — all chronic stressors that can cause preterm births. 'The idea is to look at how we decrease the effects of preeclampsia and preterm birth and look at a lot of other pregnancy related tests to your pregnancy journey,' said Brayboy. Not only could this help close the racial disparities in the maternal mortality crisis, but also the infant mortality crisis where Black babies are more than two times likely to die than their white counterparts. But Medicaid cuts could also rollback gains made in recent years to expand the insurance's coverage postpartum. March of Dimes was among several organizations that successfully advocated for Medicaid to expand postpartum care from 90 days to a full year. That's because deaths from heart conditions and mental health–related conditions are most common in the year following delivery. But at least 10 states have trigger laws, Brayboy said, which would eliminate the extended postpartum care. Brayboy is also concerned over what conditions may no longer be able to be studied with the proposed cuts. 'Those cuts are going to impact research, and research helps drive some of the policy changes,' said Brayboy. 'These Medicaid proposed cuts are going to roll back all the progress that we've made and have a ripple effect. It's not going to just be isolated cuts; this will go across the entire maternal health ecosystem.' There are members of Congress who are trying to create policies to cement research to end the Black maternal health crisis. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) told The Hill she is working with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) to build support for their Mommies Act. The act would expand Medicare cover for pregnancy, labor and postpartum services, along with directing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to issue guidance encouraging community-based doula care. The Act would also increase Medicaid minimum reimbursement rates for maternal and obstetric services for people in underserved areas and establish a maternity care home model demonstration project. 'Policy determines who lives, who dies, who survives and who thrives,' Pressley, a member of the Black Maternal Health Caucus, told The Hill. 'I am not being hyperbolic when I say these layered crises created by policy violence and neglect are a death sentence for Black moms.' Pressley said the Black maternal health crisis is personal to her — her paternal grandmother died in the 1950s giving birth to her uncle. 'It was incredibly devastating and destabilising for our family. You talk about generational trauma — every woman in their reproductive years has been told that story,' said Pressley. 'I cannot believe my grandmother suffered a fate that was preventable in the 1950s and here we stand in 2025 with the same devastating disparate outcomes.' Advocates say most of the work to combat the Medicaid cuts must come from Congressional leaders. But Donelson, of the National Partnership for Women & Families, added that families must come forward too. 'I think it's important for people who get their insurance through Medicaid, or have benefited from Medicaid in the past, to call their members of Congress, write to their members of Congress, post on social media and make a lot of noise about how Medicaid has benefited them and their families and how this program is critical to their health care,' said Donelson.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Map: The gender wage gap is highest in these states
The Brief Women earn 75 cents for every dollar paid to men, with the wage gap widest for women of color, according to a new report. States with the largest wage gaps included Utah, New Hampshire and Wyoming, with women in those areas earning thousands less than men annually. A new report has revealed the wage gap between men and women across the United States – and where it is most prominent. The report, which was conducted by the National Partnership for Women & Families, used data from the U.S. Census Bureau and an American Community Survey from 2023. By the numbers The report found that, on average, women earn only 75 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts, and that gap is widest for women of color. According to the organization, the wage gap is driven in part by gender and racial discrimination, workplace harassment, job segregation and a lack of workplace policies that support family caregiving, which is still most often performed by women. The gap also grew in 2023, the first time this has happened in more than 20 years, the report found. On average, women employed in the United States lose a combined total of almost $1.7 trillion every year due to the wage gap. What they're saying "These same factors led to women being hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent sky-rocketing inflation – working in many of the most-affected industries and bearing the brunt of increased unpaid caregiving without schools or child care. If nothing is done, the lifetime effects of the wage gap will only grow," the report said. Utah: $21,360 New Hampshire: $18,725 Wyoming: $18,720 Idaho: $18,239 North Dakota: $17,798 Washington: $17,353 Alabama: $17,162 Connecticut: $16,967 Louisiana: $15,848 New Jersey: $15,715 See the full report here. The Source The information for this story was provided by the National Partnership for Women & Families. This story was reported from Los Angeles.
USA Today
25-03-2025
- General
- USA Today
'You never catch up.' Why the gender pay gap is so much worse for caregivers
'You never catch up.' Why the gender pay gap is so much worse for caregivers Show Caption Hide Caption These states are boosting their minimum wage requirement in 2025 Here's which states are boosting their minimum wage in 2025. (Scripps News) Scripps News The gender pay gap in the U.S. has remained largely unchanged for the past two decades, with women earning approximately 83 cents for every dollar earned by men. This disparity in earnings translates to significant financial losses for women, who miss out on an average of over $14,000 annually compared to their male counterparts. While policies like paid parental leave and pay transparency laws aim to address the wage gap, experts believe a cultural shift is necessary to truly achieve pay equity. In 2023, the average woman working full time made a little more than $55,000 while the average man working full time made nearly $67,000. That wage gap of 83 cents to the dollar, according to data in the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey, has barely budged since 2003 – and it's even widened slightly. Among all workers, including part-time employees, women were typically paid 75 cents for every dollar a man made in 2023, meaning the average woman missed out on more than $14,000 compared to men. That money could pay for more than a year of child care, nearly a year and a half of groceries or 10 months of rent, according to a report from the National Partnership for Women & Families. Altogether, the report says women employed in the U.S. lose a combined total of nearly $1.7 trillion each year due to the wage gap. 'We had been, at least, making a little bit of progress,' Gloria Blackwell, CEO of the American Association of University Women, said. 'And now we're going backwards.' The gender pay gap has stayed mostly stagnant for two decades and even widened slightly from 2022 to 2023. The gap is much worse for women of color and widens as women age, in large part because women's caregiving duties expand with age, too, as they become mothers and take care of their parents, spouses and other family members. As the Trump administration continues to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, advocates are worried that the little progress that has been made to eliminate the wage gap is at risk. Erin Ryan, a mother in Columbus, Ohio, worked for an early childhood education advocacy group in 2022, before she got pregnant. The nonprofit, Groundwork Ohio, didn't have a paid parental leave policy at the time, even though that's an issue the organization advocates for at the state level. That's pretty common for small nonprofit agencies, said Ruth Thomas, pay equity strategist at Payscale, a compensation data, services and software company. Ryan said she thought she and her coworkers could 'fix it from the inside,' but when her colleagues sent a letter to the leadership team outlining the merits of a paid parental leave policy, Ryan said it was 'completely shot down.' Groundwork confirmed that it has since established a paid parental leave policy, in September 2024, but declined to comment further. When Ryan became pregnant, she cobbled together seven weeks of unpaid leave and about five weeks of accrued paid time off to spend with her newborn daughter. She recognizes her time away from work was a luxury she could afford because her husband was still working, but the nearly $10,000 she missed out on while on leave still hit her family hard. When she returned to work, and before Groundwork had established an internal paid parental leave policy, Ryan said she was asked to lead an effort advocating for paid family leave. 'That was my breaking point,' she said. Did remote work help lessen the motherhood penalty? Not really The gender wage gap is typically slimmest when women first enter the workforce, right out of high school or college. That's because entry-level positions tend to have smaller salary ranges to begin with. But over time, women are more likely to take breaks from their careers to care for their families, and less likely to get promoted at work. That's true across industries and regardless of educational background, said Jocelyn Frye, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families. When a woman stops working to care for her family, "it's very hard to catch up on the wage gains that your peers have made," Ariane Hegewisch, senior research fellow at the Institute for Women's Policy Research, said. And since pay raises are typically percentage based, those losses compound over time. "You never catch up." The rise of remote work made it easier for women to continue working while caring for their families, so they didn't get frozen at a lower salary, Hegewisch said. But remote work has not brought women pay equity. In fact, a study recently released by Payscale found the wage gap is wider for women who work from home. More: Working remotely with young kids at home? Here are 6 tips to get you through Thomas said a lack of caregiving resources like paid parental leave, affordable child care and elder care lead many women to compromise higher pay and career progression for flexibility, like a work-from-home benefit. But not everyone can work from home, and the pandemic was particularly hard on women of color who were already making less than white women. When COVID-19 shut down restaurants and stores, low-paying jobs in the food, service and retail industries went with them, largely impacting Black and Hispanic women, Hegewisch said. The pandemic even made the wage gap look a little better for a while, she said, when the lowest-paying jobs disappeared. Equal pay for equal work is just part of the battle, she said. The country has seen far less progress in giving women − particularly women of color − opportunities to rise to higher-paying jobs. A growing number of states adopt policies to improve pay equity Several states have passed laws that aim to help even the playing field for women in the workforce. Mandatory paid parental leave policies − which exist in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington − allow women like Ryan to spend time with their newborns without added financial stress, and without losing their place in their career entirely. Pay transparency laws − which exist in California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington and in some municipalities − require employers to outline salary ranges in job postings. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 sets a national precedent for equal pay for equal work, too, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission oversees workplace discrimination complaints. 'But enforcement of these laws is always a challenge,' Blackwell said. Now, with mass cuts to federal agencies under the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, it may become even more challenging. Blackwell and other advocates are worried the current administration doesn't have the bandwidth − or desire − to keep tabs on pay equity progress and enforcement. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. 'I think it's deeply troubling and problematic," Frye said. 'It sends a terrible message, and it's devastating." Closing the gender wage gap helps everyone, not just women Still, there are pockets of hope, Frye said. Individual companies like Costco are rejecting conservative pushes to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. And more states are pushing for paid parental leave and pay transparency policies. It's important to invest in women and policies that help women, Frye said, 'not just because it's nice, but really because they're integral to the economic stability of our families and also the economic vitality of our country.' The reality is, fair pay is good for both workers and employers, Thomas said. Research shows people who believe they are paid fairly stay where they are. And retention issues can be costly. Policy changes and caregiving resources will help women in the short term. But the way forward for pay equity will require a cultural shift, advocates say, away from accepting that caregiving responsibilities are reserved for women and should go unpaid. 'We need to spread out the care work,' Hegewisch said, 'and hopefully make sure that it's less penalized.' After three weeks back to work after her maternity leave, Ryan quit her job with Groundwork Ohio. She didn't have anything else lined up and took a significant financial hit. Without a full-time job, she couldn't afford full-time child care. Now, Ryan and her husband hire a nanny part time. Ryan works part time as a consultant, from home, and is starting to see paychecks that resemble where she was before becoming a mom. She doesn't regret the time she took off, though. She wasn't ready to return to work just a couple of weeks after giving birth. And she wanted to devote herself fully to her daughter in those first precious weeks. 'It was time that you never get back,' she said. Madeline Mitchell's role covering women and the caregiving economy at USA TODAY is funded by a grant from Pivotal Ventures. Pivotal Ventures does not provide editorial input. Reach Madeline at memitchell@ and @maddiemitch on X.
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Women already earn less. Trump's labor cuts could make the pay gap easier to hide.
The federal government employed around 3 million people last year. But by next year's Equal Pay Day, progress on wage transparency and equity could drop dramatically for the country's largest employers — a warning sign for the rest of the nation's private sector workers. Tuesday's Equal Pay Day, meant to highlight wage inequality across gender and race, falls during an unprecedented period of governmental upheaval. Between unprecedented mass layoffs, President Donald Trump's reshaping of labor boards, and a targeted backlash to diversity advancements, many gains made among the federal workforce could disappear, experts say. 'It's not unusual to have different emphases across Republican and Democratic administrations, different levels of enforcement,' said Jocelyn Frye, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, a national nonpartisan organization that advocates for family policy. 'What's different this time around, unlike the first Trump administration and [any other] since [former President Lyndon B.] Johnson's administration, they have sought to eliminate the underlying executive actions and infrastructure that is critical to doing robust enforcement.' During Trump's first term, he directed the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a labor board dedicated to investigating discrimination charges, to stop collecting pay data on race and gender from large companies — which a federal judge overruled soon after. He also rolled back the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces executive order, which required federal contractors to comply with 14 labor and civil rights laws, including a paycheck transparency rule. Trump's latest attempts to reshape and freeze agencies like the EEOC and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which handles unionization processes, are yet another step away from addressing wage discrimination complaints from the nation's workforce. 'If you don't have the ability to track or try to prove or enforce non-discrimination laws, that's going to be worse,' said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a left-leaning think tank. 'Those [cuts] are hugely detrimental. They're going in the wrong direction.' The so-called Department of Government Efficiency, billionaire Elon Musk's cost-cutting effort, has fired an estimated 32,000 employees so far, in addition to the 75,000 who have taken deferred buyouts. The group has not published any comprehensive data about those who have been dismissed, including their gender or race. Coupled with mass layoffs is the administration's move to aggressively weed out diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts in the federal government, including firings of high-profile women, Democrats and people of color. This could squash any future conversations about pay equity under this White House, said Kelly Dittmar, director of research for the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. The arguments to address inequalities are about systemic changes, rather than individual cases — a theme the current administration has been pushing back on for months, she added. 'There's no expectation that they would prioritize this issue. They haven't before,' Dittmar said. 'There's very little pressure from their base to do so. And in the current climate, which I do think is even different than the first [term]… they're doubling down on [a backlash to diversity] for a whole host of reasons.' While data is not yet available for Trump's current staff, women working under his first year in office earned 69 cents to every $1 a man made, wider than the national wage gap at the time of 82 cents per dollar. His first term saw an estimated 37 percent pay gap among staffers, per the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank — a large jump from the last year of former President Barack Obama's administration, which was estimated to be somewhere under 20 percent. The White House did not respond to a request for comment about any current or future policies concerning wage equality. Congress requires the administration to publicly share salary information annually on July 1. Former President Joe Biden got closer to narrowing the gap, particularly toward the end of his term, with a $93,752 average salary for women compared to $94,639 for men. His administration's efforts to combat inequality included raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour in 2022 for 370,000 federal employees and contractors. He also issued a new rule that barred more than 80 federal agencies from considering workers' current or past pay in setting their salaries, a practice that has suppressed wages for women by carrying inequities from one job to the next. Women comprised around 56 percent of Biden's senior staff, an increase from Obama and Trump's administrations. Women are already less likely to be Republican, and fewer conservative women work in politics, furthering the current administration's potential divide, Dittmar said. Government jobs have traditionally had more transparency in wage gaps compared to the private sector, Dittmar said, with clearer guidelines about seniority and salaries. Addressing the inequities at the federal level has the additional benefit of giving other industries clues and examples of progress, she said. And the recent tampering with labor board functions sends a very different message to the private sector than previous administrations, Frye said: Nobody is monitoring business practices. 'Nobody is watching, and nobody is paying attention to whether or not you're discriminating,' Frye said. 'It's hard to say what exactly the private sector pay practices will look like because nobody is going to be scrutinizing it terribly closely. And they know that, and we know that.' Equal Pay Day has traditionally been held on the symbolic day a woman would have to work to have earned as much as a White man during just the prior year. Wage gaps across the country have decreased between men and women of all races, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute. In 2024, women were paid 18 percent less on average than men, controlling for all factors. For every White man who earned $1 in 2023, Black women earned 64 cents, Latina women earned 51 cents, Native American women earned 52 cents, and AAPI women earned 82 cents, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families. The progress after the pandemic shutdown years showcased a tight labor market, according to Gould. This is likely to change over the next year based on the recent waves of federal layoffs and future job insecurity. When unemployment is low, companies have less discretion in hiring, and are more likely to make their offers competitive to entice workers, she said. But a potential incoming recession means historically disadvantaged workers get hurt first, Gould added. 'The economic uncertainty that's being shown right now, whether it has to do with deportations or tariffs or all the playoffs at the federal level that are trickling through contractors and into the private sector, that's going to have a huge impact,' she said. The post Women already earn less. Trump's labor cuts could make the pay gap easier to hide. appeared first on The 19th. News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday. Subscribe to our free, daily newsletter.
