On May 11, 2014 Governor Mark Dayton signed into law H.F.2536, which is better known as the Women’s Economic Security Act (WESA). The bill compiled nine pieces of legislation that are designed to increase the conditions in the workplace for women. The nine parts of the bill are:

  1. Closing the gender pay gap by creating equal pay policy for private businesses who meet certain criteria and by allowing employees to discuss their individual earning.
  2. Raising the minimum wage in MN to $9.50 an hour by 2015, which will increase income for some women and their families.
  3. Providing additional access to high-quality and affordable childcare by increasing funding for early learning scholarships. (How quality early education programs can affect the outcomes of children in the child welfare system was previously discussed here.)
  4. Changing current policy on family and sick leave for working families by making changes to the Minnesota Parental Leave Act and making changes to the amount of sick time an employee earns and when it can be taken. (The impact of this provision on child welfare was previously discussed here.)
  5. Protecting women from discrimination in the workplace in terms of caregiver status and increasing support for mothers. The state will also increase enforcement of these and other similar laws.
  6. Improving the protections afforded to victims of domestic violence through job stability provisions and unemployment insurance eligibility.
  7. Encouraging women to seek employment in non-traditional, high-paying jobs through additional incentives within the Minnesota Department of Economic and Employment Development (DEED) workforce development program.
  8. Supporting businesses that are owned by women by creating a pilot project for women entrepreneurs to develop business in traditionally male-dominated and technology-related industries.
  9. Supporting older women in being economically secure through updating Minnesota’s Medicaid spousal impoverished law and creating a Minnesota Retirement Savings Plan, which would allow workers who are employed in the small private sector that do not have an employer-sponsored retirement plan to save their money in a state-managed program.

As part of this legislation, the governor will appoint a task force comprised of 31 members, with at least 50 percent of the members coming from local workforce nominations. The legislation also stipulates the number of individuals from each work sector that will be included in the task force. This task force will work to ensure that each part of WESA is being implemented and followed correctly.

Impact on Child Welfare

A previous CASCW blog post discussed the impact that job security and an increase in wages have on working families.  Research conducted by Jobs Now Coalition found that by increasing the minimum wage to 9.50, the income of 202,000 working women will improve, the economic security of 137,000 children will improve, and the aggregate income of working women will increase by $256,987,000. Additionally, the Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS-4) found that poverty was the single most likely predictor of child maltreatment and neglect. By increasing the wages and overall economic security of women, and families in general, WESA could have an impact on reducing the incidence of child maltreatment.