press4.19.07

Union Leader, The/New Hampshire Sunday News ( Manchester , NH )

New Hampshire Union Leader ( Manchester , NH )

April 19, 2007

Group: NH has 6th largest pay gap

Author: BENJAMIN KEPPLE New Hampshire Union Leader

Edition: State
Section: Business
Page: B5

Article Text:

MANCHESTER -- More flexible work policies would improve women's participation in the work force and reduce persistent pay gaps between men and women workers, local business people were told yesterday.

Women in New Hampshire have the 10th-highest median earnings in America , but the gap in gross income between men and women is the sixth largest in the nation, said Katherine Merrow, executive director of the New Hampshire Women's Policy Institute, a non-partisan Concord research group.

The income gap increases as workers age, and many women temporarily leave the work force to have children or take care of ailing relatives.

"The landscape might look a bit different if there were policies in place that didn't make (having a career) an all-or-nothing proposition," said Stefany Shaheen, a member of the New Hampshire Commission on the Status of Women.

Annie Farnsworth, interim executive director of the New Hampshire Women's Lobby, said more opportunities for telecommuting, flex-time and part-time work would help matters. So would better child care and after-school arrangements, she said.

"We hope employers will begin to recognize you don't want to lose women in the work force," Farnsworth said.

About 75 businesspeople turned out for the event, a breakfast forum the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce hosted. The event was held at The Derryfield restaurant on Mammoth Road . Other speakers included Ellen Fineberg, executive director of the Women's Business Center in Portsmouth .

For many businesswomen in attendance, the data reflected what they had seen throughout their careers.

"When that gap happens, (women employees) lose that momentum -- and that affects everything," said Sandra Mayo, the director of administration for Natalie Manor & Associates, a Merrimack consultancy.

Some also voiced concerns over the education and training provided to women on government assistance. Some 40 percent of single women with children in New Hampshire , according to Farnsworth, have used some form of government relief.

Robin Longo, who owns an Edible Arrangements franchise on Elm Street in Manchester , said it was important for women receiving aid to get trained in well-paying careers.

But some at the forum didn't see issues such as flexible scheduling as solely a concern for women.

"It's not only women who have elderly parents and children -- it's men and women. It'll be interesting to see how the business community can talk about this moving forward," said Gail Garceau, a Bedford businesswoman.

Women made up nearly 60% of New Hampshire’s full-time workers earning less than $15,000 per year in 1999.