Womens Employment Issues Committee

April 20, 2016: 9:30 AM
Frances Perkins Room, MDOL Commerce Drive, Augusta, ME

Women?s Employment Issues Committee AGENDA 4/20/16 9:30 ? Noon Frances Perkins Room, MDOL Introductions Approval of 2/29/16 Minutes Presentation about education and employment data by gender ? Ruth Pease, Center for Workforce Research and Information, MDOL ? Ryan Neale, Economic Growth Council, Maine Development Foundation Conversation about the data?what stands out for us, what?s missing, how does this data inform our priority setting process Next steps with our 2016 Committee Priorities and Process ? Determining priorities for 2016?areas of alignment with the WIOA Plan or other policy issues, areas that need a gender spotlight, opportunities for coordination, setting goals and benchmarks ? Process?how can we most effectively communicate and coordinate with/within: o Our Committee o Other Committees o State Workforce Board o Key Strategic Partners Update on WIOA, SWB, DOL Member Updates/Resource Sharing Upcoming Meetings?9:30 ? Noon, Frances Perkins Room, MD ? Tuesday, June 21 ? Tuesday, September 13 ? Monday, November 7


STATE WORKFORCE BOARD WOMEN?S EMPLOYMENT ISSUES COMMITTEE APRIL 20, 2016

Present: Gilda Nardone, Karen Keim, Darylen Cote (phone), Valerie Carter, Jody Harris, Laurie Glidden, Amertah Perman, Kelly Samson-Rickert, Auta Main, Chris Hastedt, Kathy Kilrain del Rio

Absent: Christy Daggett, Christy Cross, Joni Boissonneault, Kelly Osborn, Nicole Evans, Denise Nemeth-Greenleaf

Guest: Ruth Pease, Ryan Neale, James Myall, Alyra Donisvitch, Regina Rooney, Eloise Vitelli

Staff: Cheryl Moran

Introductions • Gilda Nardone ? opened the meeting with welcomes and introductions and stated that at the last Committee meeting, the focus was on program data and the Committee?s policy and program priorities.

Approval of 2/29/16 Minutes • Gilda Nardone asked for approval of the 2/29/16 meeting minutes. Minutes approved as written with no corrections.

Presentation about education and employment data by gender • Ruth Pease, Center for Workforce Research and Information (CWRI), MDOL ? opened her presentation by describing some of the functions they perform at CWRI. For example, research and analysis, collect and report data to the US Department of Statistics. The PowerPoint presented was titled Women in Maine?s Labor Market: From Three Vantage Points focusing on 3 areas: 1) Trends in labor force participation 2) Trends in wage and salary employment and 3) Occupational distribution of female job-holders.
Data based from the Maine Labor Force Participation by Gender, 1976 to 2015, show increasing participation by women until 2000, while rates among men peaked somewhat earlier. The cause of the rise and fall, they do not know. Reason could be ?age? playing a big factor with both genders (Baby Boomers) as they move out of the labor force. Data from the US Census Bureau?s Local Employment Dynamics show that men and women fared differently during the recession. Women fared better than men but recovery has been slower. Job loss for men was in industries that they were associated with such as construction and manufacturing. In summary, occupations dominated by women are at or below the median wage. Men seem to be more dispersed across occupational groups.
The focus is on occupations and the concern on how to move women into higher occupations.

• Ryan Neale, Economic Growth Council, Maine Development Foundation ? provided handouts. His presentation covered Gender Income Disparity. Ryan stated that the average income gap in 2014 shows U.S. women are making progress but in Maine, they have stepped backwards. • Karen Keim ? stated there is a disparity of what occupation women choose to go into. She pointed out that veterans show greater persistence of receiving college attainment however, women complete faster than men. She finds that men will seek solution without assistance unlike women. TANF recipients stop and start more due to family situations but are persistent as long as they are being helped.
• Auta Main ? stated women veterans have a high level of education but also a high level of unemployment. • Ryan Neale ? explained the charts on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) which is a standardize test providing data for Fourth Grade reading scores and Eighth Grade math scores. Both are highly regarded for accuracy. The Fourth Grade chart indicated that Maine was way below the 50% goal for both male and female. He stated that they like to use the fourth grade assessment because it is a great indicator of where they are at early childhood. The eighth grade chart indicates how Maine fares in STEM courses because Maine does not perform up to New England par.
• Amertah Perman ? asked the question, how do you increase wages and create a career pathway? She has found that a lot of employers not necessarily require a degree. The data they use is only counting real degrees (Associates and Bachelors) and leaving out the importance of industry specific skills. Degree or apprenticeship, which way do you move the needle? • Ryan Neale ? we want all Mainers to maximize earning potential.

• Valerie Carter, Bureau of Education, University of Maine Research Associate ? her presentation covered 2 DRAFT tables on Maine Occupational Employment, 2015, Top 20 Male/Female Occupations. What are the largest occupations for women vs men? She compared the top 12 occupations for both men and women and equally 1 fared (high median wage). She stated how it is very sobering with both women and men and she strongly stated that we need to have decent wages so people can stay in their occupations and in Maine.

Conversation about the data ? what stands out for us, what?s missing, how does this data inform our priority setting process • Gilda Nardone ? stated how can we leverage each other?s resources? She went around the table asking for suggestions/feedback. • Ryan Neale ? the Maine Development Foundation will tend to look at gender breakdown and the Gender Report will come out sometime before summer. He stated that he will be happy to share. • Jody Harris ? stated she is willing to help with data. • Laurie Glidden ? low-income families are afraid to go to school. • Kathy Kilrain del Rio ? closing the ?wage gap? and improving the quality of life. • Karen Keim ? the reason why women drop out of college is because they lose childcare funding. • Regina Rooney ? continue to make connections with other women issues. How the Commission and this group can work together. • Eloise Vitelli ? felt what is important for this group, is to focus in on what is important from our perspective.
• Amertah Perman ? focus on priorities that are not necessarily prioritized. She also stated that she still struggles with what these committees are for and what exactly have they accomplished. • Auta Main ? we cannot meet all priorities this year but try to tackle 1 or 2 on a smaller scale. • Valerie Carter ? clear and simple communications on policy. • Kelly Samson-Rickert ? roles, rights and responsibility; all members make a list of women issues that are important to them and then we can see who?s doing what. • Chris Hastedt ? legislative decisions by lawmakers are not based on data or fact. Policy makers need to hear from people besides us. What needs to happen is how we change the perception of what reform is all about. • Karen Keim ? we need to focus on our title Women?s Employment Issues Committee (WEIC) and what it stands for. We can move people with data as long as we can be consistent with our messaging. • James Myall ? stated that he is concerned with women not completing college.

Next steps with our2016 Committee Priorities and Process • Gilda Nardone ? what are the 2 areas we need to focus on: 1.) Data and 2.) Policy. Who else are the key players working on those issues? Develop the concept of a dashboard to track progress. How can we most effectively inform the State Workforce Board? How this committee can partner with some of the other committees? Be able to narrow our focus to be able to have a reality.

Update of WIOA, SWB, DOL • Cheryl Moran ? reported, the WIOA State Unified Plan is completed and was submitted on time (April 1, 2016).
As of last week, USDOL has started reviewing the Plan. They will notify the State Workforce Board (Garret Oswald, Director) if any adjustments are needed. Once approved, we will be committed to develop a dashboard to track progress and will be working on implementing strategy and develop a process. We are in the process of filling Paul Leparulo?s position and that person will be the Project Manager that will be developing the dashboard. Garret is very confident that Maine will be allowed to receive the WIOA money as of July 1st. As of July 1st, we will implement what we said we will do in the Plan. The Plan is accessible in PDF and Word on the State Workforce Board site at http://www.maine.gov/swb. Twenty-two comments were submitted including praises during that allotted time period. Each comment submitted was reviewed by the Plan Steering Committee, who decided if suggested edits to the document were appropriate. Some comments were specific and recommended revised language related to sections of the Plan. Other comments were general in nature and suggested additional emphasis be placed on Plan sections, objectives or services. We received acknowledgement that our Partners, Goodwill Industries of NNE and Job Corps are doing a good job. Education and Economic Development have been a great partnership.

Member Updates/Resource Sharing • Gilda Nardone ? due to time constraints, we will discuss at the next meeting.

Meeting adjourned

Next meeting Tuesday, June 21, 2016, 9:30 ? Noon, Frances Perkins Room, MDOL

Respectfully submitted by Cheryl Moran


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