By Samantha Strong
Herald contributor

The median annual wage for a woman living in Winnebago County is $35,600, according to the Women’s Fund Report on the Status of Women in Northeast Wisconsin. The median annual wage for a man living in the county is $47,300 according to the same report.

Compounded over 50 years that difference amounts to $585,000. While the gender wage gap has narrowed slightly in most of northeast Wisconsin counties, it’s still a disparity of 25 percent in Winnebago.

“One thing that we see as a factor of poverty is employment – specifically what is a living wage versus what is minimum wage, and being able to further education,” Allison Knautz, outreach specialist at FoodShare Employment and Training (FSET), said. “We’re shifting our case management style to treat poverty as an environmental factor – something that is treatable – so we’re aiming to come alongside individuals in need and get them connected with resources that address those needs much sooner than they are now, as well as provide a continuum of care.”

FSET is a program through Forward Service Corp. (FSC) that helps those who qualify for the FoodShare program find and retain a job, job training and education, career planning, referrals to other services, work experience to learn skills and even help with transportation and child care.

Women’s needs vary in Oshkosh, but Knautz agreed with other area nonprofit organizations combating poverty that the main barriers to getting and keeping a job are transportation, child care and housing, as these factors all influence a woman’s job search, education and work opportunities.

A working woman without reliable transportation will be in trouble if her vehicle has trouble or child care falls through – especially if short on cash or without a support system nearby. The same applies to women pursuing some sort of continuing education.
If she does have car trouble or a child care scheduling hiccup, it could mean calling into work with the hope of having some flexibility or paid time off. Without those options it could cost her a day’s wages or at worse the job itself, which starts the job-seeking cycle over again.

Since a large number of women in Oshkosh are already living paycheck to paycheck, according to the United Way’s 2018 ALICE report, not having an income means having to dip into whatever savings are available to cover immediate needs. The Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE) threshold describes households that earn more than the federal poverty level but less than the basic cost of living for the country.

“Loss of employment, when that happens and it’s unexpected, can certainly put somebody in a precarious position where they might need to use money or savings to pay for bills and cover things they weren’t intending,” Knautz said. “(Poverty and employment) is a very big topic but we can’t lose the individuals who are being affected by this and living this as their everyday situation.”

It’s about location 
The third major barrier Oshkosh women in poverty face is affordable housing. This translates to getting a job because it’s difficult to turn in an application without an address. Women with a permanent place to live can also find themselves in a pickle if they don’t live within a close distance to their jobs and need transportation to get their.

The majority of affordable or low-income housing units are in the 54901 ZIP code, according to the Oshkosh/Winnebago County Housing Authority. Mayor Lori Palmeri said as the city continues to expand and attract large employers that present opportunities and potentially higher-paying jobs, planners need to look at the current transportation system and make sure there is affordable housing near the new opportunities.

Currently there are 1,884 applicants on a waiting list to get into affordable housing through the County Housing Authority, including 907 county residents. The rest are either outside the county or state.

“My proposal is that when developers are asking the city for incentives as they build new apartment complexes, that they would consider providing 10 percent, or even just 10 of the units, below market rate so that an ALICE family could afford it,” Palmeri said. “If someone is going to ask for incentives, we’re going to ask if there’s wiggle room where they can build the units, too.”

Palmeri said that while poverty and homelessness may never be eliminated, local officials can help lift people out.
“Having a roof over your head will at least give you a better chance,” Palmeri said.

What employers want
Female job-seekers and working women in poverty aren’t the only ones frustrated. Another group is Oshkosh employers, Knautz said, who are struggling with a lack of employee buy-in and retention.

According to the Women’s Fund report, half of all women working full time, year-round can be found in one of five occupations: office and administrative support, management occupations, sales and related (including retail), production, and business and financial operations. These are jobs women held at the time of the 2017 study. It found that men, on average, out-earn women in each of these fields by anywhere from $7,000 to $23,000.

These aren’t necessarily the best-paying jobs with a clear path to promotion, which is what is needed to gain self-sufficiency, according to Brian Covey, FSC director of outreach and development. The FSET program has Oshkosh employer partners that have identified what they need in a labor force.

“We want to help the Wisconsin employers tap into a labor pool that has the skills and an idea of where they want to go in a career, and also have a stable home life so they can have a stable work life,” Covey said.

FSET has identified industries and occupations in the area that provide higher wages and make a better quality of life possible: manufacturing, logistics, office administration and call centers. Covey said the FSET program hosts a free four- to six-week training program for individuals to get the skills for success in one of these areas.

“The goal is that they attend these trainings, which leads to a higher-paying job so they can get out of poverty and into a career path because these are the jobs that offer higher pay and a clear path forward,” he said. “I think training and education are the surest paths to higher earnings.”

Yet if those original barriers aren’t dealt with, maintaining employment remains an overriding issue for women.