Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress finds the following: According to the Council of Economic Advisors, occupations requiring higher educational attainment are projected to grow much faster than those with lower education requirements between 2006 and 2016, with the fastest growth among occupations that require an associate’s degree or a post-secondary vocational award. Some of the occupations cited in the report include electricians, plumbers, aircraft mechanics and service technicians, electrical power line installers and repairers, and environmental engineering technicians, all of which are nontraditional occupations for women, as defined under the Carl T.
Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006. Only 6.2 percent of employed women worked in nontraditional occupations in 2008. More than one-half of all working women are clustered in 25 of 504 job categories tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Excluding teachers and nurses, most of these categories are among the lowest-paid occupations. In general, women working in nontraditional fields earn 20 to 30 percent more than women in traditionally female fields. The National Association of Manufacturers estimates a need for 10 million new workers by 2020 due to the aging of the current workforce.
Moreover, 90 percent of manufacturers are experiencing a shortage of qualified employees including machinists, operators, craft workers, distributors, and technicians. Women hold only 4.7 percent of welding, soldering, and brazing jobs. Women make up 73.7 percent of cashiers, whose hourly wage averages $9.52, but only 0.4 percent of electrical power-line installers and repairers, who earn an average hourly wage of $27.65, and only 7.5 percent of telecommunications line installers and repairers, who earn an average hourly wage of $24.08.
Women comprise 71.1 percent of wait staff, whose hourly wage averages $9.99, but only 0.6 percent of HVAC mechanics and installers, who make an average hourly wage of $21.57. Women make up 94.7 percent of child care workers, whose hourly wage averages $10.15, but only 1.5 percent of electricians, who make an average hourly wage of $24.91. Women comprise 92.7 percent of receptionists and information clerks, whose hourly wage averages $12.63, but only 10.9 percent of surveying and mapping technicians who make an average hourly wage of $19.41.
Women make up 84.2 percent of office clerks, whose hourly wage averages $13.58, but only 11 percent of computer, ATM, and office machine repairers, who make an average hourly wage of $18.79, and only 2.3 percent of aircraft mechanics who earn an average hourly wage of $25.62. Girls comprise only 15 percent of students enrolled in high school courses leading to nontraditional occupations. This proportion has stayed relatively constant for the past 30 years. An independent study conducted in 2001 found that when programs, such as those under the Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations (WANTO) Act of 1992, were implemented in an area, local women were 25 percent more likely to hold a nontraditional job and were more likely to hold these jobs years after the intervention.
More than half of the individuals receiving training services under the Workforce Investment Act are women. However, males who complete training are 11 times more likely to be employed in the occupational category farming, fishing, forestry, construction and extraction and 7 times more likely in the area installation, repair, production, transportation, and material moving. In 2009, earnings of females who completed training were 24 percent lower than the earnings of males in the first quarter after completing the training.