By Yvonne Wood
If current trends continue, women in Tennessee will not reach equal pay until 2057. Tennessee women who work full-time year-round earn 84 cents on the dollar compared with similarly employed men. An interesting fact in this study is that as men’s earnings have stagnated or fallen, women’s earnings have become increasingly important to family economic security. Tennessee women who are unionized earn $179 more per week on average than those who are not represented by a union. Black and Hispanic women with a bachelor’s degree or higher nearly double their earnings.
This is the first report to provide a comprehensive portrait of the status of women in the Southern states, grading each state on six different topic areas related to women’s economic, political, health and social status.