"100 Best" companies for women

Five D.C. companies were among 100 who are being highlighted by Working Mother magazine for maintaining workplaces that allow women to keep balance between their work and home lives. For the 25th year, the list of "Working Mother Best 100" companies spotlights companies that "set a new standard for family-friendly policies." The local companies include:

• Arnold & Porter
• Covington & Burling
• Fannie Mae
• FINRA
• National Education Association

Congratulations to them and to their very fortunate employees. The news release below, e-mailed to me by Ila Tyagi of The Rosen Group, a publicist for the magazine, explains the list and why the magazine chose to celebrate such companies.

Print out and show this post to your boss, give or her a hard look and then say something like, "How nice it must be to work for a company with such progressive, enlightened leadership. How wonderful that must be for the employees and the bottom line!"

New York, NY (September 14, 2010) -- Celebrating its silver anniversary this year, the Working Mother 100 Best Companies initiative has set the bar for forward-thinking, family-friendly workplace policies for a quarter-century. Today, the Working Mother 100 Best Companies offer better benefits than ever before, eclipsing their counterparts nationwide. With 70 percent of mothers working and women outnumbering men in the workplace for the first time in U.S. history working moms have come a long way.

"Twenty-five years ago, we made a bold decision to launch our Best Companies initiative and challenge businesses to address the unique needs of working mothers," said Carol Evans, President, Working Mother Media. "The immense influx of women into the workforce demanded changes in workplace culture as companies strove to keep working moms' talent and loyalty. Today, we celebrate our winners' untiring commitment to their employees through an impressive array of programs."

While the Working Mother 100 Best Companies continue expanding their benefits, those at companies nationwide° lag. Just 44 percent of American companies offer telecommuting (vs. 100 percent of the 100 Best), 17 percent offer formal mentoring (vs. 95 percent), and 37 percent offer health insurance for part-timers (vs. 100 percent). 49 percent of employers offered flextime last year, down from 54 percent the prior year. In contrast, all of the 100 Best Companies offer paid maternity leave, lactation rooms, flextime, mental health consultations and elder-care resources; and 98 percent offer health screening and wellness programs--particularly significant in a stress-inducing, poor economy.

Improvements in these companies' offerings to working-family employees include:

THEN: Six weeks of partially-paid maternity leave
NOW: Six to 14 weeks at full pay, with pre-maternity leaves and new-mom phase-back

THEN: Four percent of Best Companies offered paternity leave
NOW: 75 percent of Best Companies offer paternity leave

THEN: Seven Best Companies offered on-site childcare
NOW: 99 Best Companies offer a range of services including backup child-care, sick childcare, before- and after-school care and summer camps for kids

THEN: Stress reduction programs
NOW: Fully-staffed medical centers at 63 percent, fitness centers at 78 percent and exercise classes at 80 percent of Best Companies

"There's been a dramatic change in America's mindset," said Suzanne Riss, Editor in Chief, Working Mother. "In 1986, women didn't acknowledge the fact that they were a mom at work for fear of being 'mommy tracked.' Today, moms have photos of their kids on their desks because companies recognize that moms make high-achieving, loyal and ambitious employees. What's more, other employee groups - including dads and people with aging parents - have benefited from the policies promoted by the 100 Best."

The Working Mother 100 Best Companies employ dynamic programs that adeptly help employees in all areas of their lives. Employees who want to learn how to build a nest egg in a cracked economy can benefit from Prudential Financial's one-on-one budget coaching. Intel supplies employees and their children and grandchildren with homework help via a tutoring hotline. And employees at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey work with a former stand-up comedian to learn how humor can reduce stress, as part of a five-year program focused on education, exercise and overall well-being.

Profiles of the 100 Best Companies, as well as national comparisons, are in the October issue of 

Working Mother and at workingmother.com/bestcompanies.

THE 2010 WORKING MOTHER 100 BEST COMPANIES

*Indicates a Top 10 winning company
־ Indicates a company on the list for all 25 years

• Abbott
• Accenture
• Allstate Insurance Company
• American Electric Power
• American Express Company
• AOL
• Arnold & Porter LLP
• AstraZeneca
• Automatic Data Processing, Inc.
• Bain & Company, Inc.
• Bank of America*
• Baptist Health South Florida
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina
• Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceutical USA
• Bon Secours Richmond Health System
• Booz Allen Hamilton
• The Boston Consulting Group, Inc.
• Bristol-Myers Squibb
• Bronson Healthcare Group, Inc.
• Capital One Financial Corporation
• Carlson Companies
• Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
• Cisco
• Citi
• Colgate-Palmolive Company
• Covington & Burling LLP
• Credit Suisse
• Dell Inc.
• Deloitte*
• Deutsche Bank
• Diageo North America
• Discovery Communications*
• Dow Corning Corporation
• DuPont
• Eli Lilly and Company
• Ernst & Young*
• Fannie Mae
• FINRA
• First Horizon National Corporation
• First National Bank
• Freddie Mac
• Genentech
• General Electric Company
• General Mills*
• Goldman, Sachs & Co.
• Grant Thornton LLP
• Hallmark Cards, Inc.
• HCA Virginia Health System - Richmond Market
• Hewitt Associates LLC
• Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey
• HP
• IBM Corporation* ־
• Intel
• Johnson & Johnson ־
• Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
• Kellogg Company
• KPMG LLP*
• Kraft Foods, Inc.
• LEGO Systems, Inc.
• March of Dimes Foundation
• Marriott International, Inc.
• MasterCard Worldwide
• McGladrey
• The McGraw-Hill Companies
• McKinsey & Company
• Merck & Co., Inc.
• Mercy Health System
• MetLife, Inc.
• Microsoft Corporation
• Moffitt Cancer Center
• Monsanto Company
• Morgan Stanley
• National Education Association
• New York Life Insurance Company
• Northern Trust Corporation
• Northwestern Memorial HealthCare
• Novo Nordisk Inc.
• Patagonia, Inc.
• Pearson Inc.
• Pfizer Inc.
• Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
• The PNC Financial Services Group
• PricewaterhouseCoopers*
• The Principal Financial Group
• Procter & Gamble
• Prudential Financial, Inc.
• sanofi-aventis U.S.
• SC Johnson
• Scripps Health
• Texas Instruments Incorporated
• TriHealth, A Partnership of Bethesda and Good Samaritan
• Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
• University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics*
• VCU Health System
• Verizon Communications Inc.
• WellPoint, Inc.
• WellStar Health System*
• Wyndham Worldwide
• Yale University
• Yale-New Haven Hospital

_______________________

By Avis Thomas-Lester  for the Washington Post

25 best-paying jobs for women

When you look at Forbes magazine’s most recent list of highest-paid CEO’s (chief executives of the 500 biggest companies in the United States), you won’t see a woman until No. 48: Irene B Rosenfeld, CEO of Kraft Foods. In a country where women make up 47 percent of the workforce, 3 percent of Fortune 500 CEO’s are female. In addition, women who worked full time earned an average of just 80 percent of what men earned in the same positions in 2008, according to the BLS.

But is salary disparity between genders the issue or is it something else?

In the Harvard Business Review blog, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox wrote: “Women represent one of the world’s biggest and most under-reported opportunities. The business world has been so focused on stories like the rise of China that it has not been invited to see that, much closer to home, business could be reaping the benefits of the rise of women. Companies and their business school feeders have been slow in adapting and profiting from this shift, and part of the reason is that media too often focus on small, sensational and misleading parts of the story, including aspects like the wage gap.”

Catalyst’s February 2010 Pipeline’s Broken Promise report examining high potential graduates from top business schools around the world found that, even after taking into account experience, industry and region, women start at lower levels than men, make on average $4,600 less in their initial jobs, and continue to be outpaced by men in rank and salary growth. Only when women begin their post-MBA career at mid-management or above do they achieve parity in position with men - a situation that accounted for only 10 percent of the women and 19 percent of the men surveyed.

Whatever the cause, the BLS reports there are only a handful of occupations where women’s earnings are equal to or exceed men’s including construction and extraction occupations; special education teachers; installation, maintenance and repair occupations; life, physical and social science technicians; and counselors.

We wanted to know, what jobs pay women the most money? Here are 25 jobs where women earn $1000 a week or more, according to the BLS, and how those wages compare to their male counterparts’.

Pharmacists

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,647

Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,914

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 86.1%

Chief executives

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,603

Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,999

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 80.2%

Lawyers

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,509

Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,875

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 80.5%

Computer software engineers

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,351

Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,555

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 86.9%

Computer and information systems managers

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,260

Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,641

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 76.8%

Physicians and surgeons

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,230

Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,911

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 64.4%

Management analysts

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,139

Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,391

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 81.9%

Human resources managers

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,137

Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,433

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 79.3%

Speech-language pathologists

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,124

Men – Median weekly earnings: *

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: **

Computer and mathematical occupations

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,088

Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,320

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 82.4%

Computer scientists and systems analysts

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,082

Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,240

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 87.3%

Physician assistants

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,077

Men – Median weekly earnings: **

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: **

Medical and health services managers

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,066

Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,504

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 70.9%

Physical scientists, all other

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,061

Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,535

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 69.1%

Postsecondary teachers

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,056

Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,245

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 84.8%

Marketing and sales managers

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,024

Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,601

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 64%

Physical therapists

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,019

Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,329

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 76.7%

Occupational therapists

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,016

Men – Median weekly earnings: **

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: **

Registered nurses

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,011

Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,168

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 86.6%

Managers, all other

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,010

Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,359

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 74.3%

Psychologists

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,004

Men – Median weekly earnings: **

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: **

Computer programmers

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,003

Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,261

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 79.5%

Architecture and engineering occupations

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,001

Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,286

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 77.8%

Advertising and promotions managers

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,000

Men – Median weekly earnings: **

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: **

Education administrators

Women – Median weekly earnings: $1,000

Men – Median weekly earnings: $1,398

Women’s earnings as percent of men’s in same occupation: 71.5%

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Are males and females paid the same at your organization?

*No data or data that do not meet publication criteria.

** Data not shown where the male employment base is less than 50,000.

By Kate Lorenz