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Alaska: Women earn an average of 68 percent of what men make in Alaska - The average woman who worked in Alaska in 2015 earned $34,333, and there was nearly a 50 percent chance she worked in health care or in state or local government. She also made 68 percent of what the average Alaska man earned, according to Karinne Wiebold an economist for the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

In 2015, nearly 167,000 women worked in Alaska and earned $5.7 billion. However, according to Wiebold, men earn more in nearly 80 percent of Alaska’s occupations and at every age and educational level, even though men and women participate in the workforce at nearly equal rates and work the same number of quarters per year. Forty-eight percent of the state’s workers were women in 2015, but they made 38 percent of total wages.

In a recent article published in the Alaska Economic Trends magazine, Wiebold reported that women’s workforce presence and share of total wages have both increased slightly since the late 1980s, when women were 47 percent of workers and earned 35 percent of wages. But over the past decade, both percentages have stayed about the same, with wages hovering around 38 percent and the percent of total workers varying by just half a percentage point.

The earnings ratio, or women’s wages in Alaska as a percent of men’s, has grown somewhat over time reported Wiebold an economist. During the late 1980s, when Alaska was recovering from a significant recession, wage parity was at a low of 62 percent. That gap narrowed during the 1990s, to between 65 and 66 percent, and it continued to shrink into the 21st century.

Wiebold's article’s data did not measure the reasons for the Alaska's gender wage gap. She suggested there were a variety of factors likely influence the disparity in wages, including job experience, training, education, hours worked, choice of occupation or industry, and current and historical discrimination - but the degree to which those factors affect the gap was outside her article’s scope.

Gap smallest in urban areas

While women are 48 percent of the workforce statewide, the percentage varies considerably by region wrote Wiebold.

The percentages in some of the most populated and urban areas - Anchorage, Fairbanks, and the Gulf Coast - are around 49 percent.

Women earn a slightly higher percentage of wages than the statewide 38 percent in the two most urban areas: Anchorage (41 percent) and Fairbanks (40 percent). Those cities have a significant number of high-paying private occupations as well as state and local government jobs, which have a smaller wage gap.

According to data presented by Wiebold, in Southeast Alaska, women make up 50 percent of the workforce and how their pay measures up differs by location such as:

• in Ketchikan, women make up 41 percent of the workforce earning an average annual wage of $24,385. Women in Ketchikan earn an average of 75 percent of what a man makes in Ketchikan.
• In Sitka, women make up 52 percent of the workforce earning an average annual wage of $31,421 and earn an average of 84 percent of what a man makes in Sitka.
• In Wrangell, women make up 54 percent of the workforce earning an average annual wage of $26,594. Wrangell women earn an average of 84 percent of what a man makes in Wrangell.
• in Juneau, women make up 49 percent of the workforce earning an average annual wage of $36,748 and earn an average of 84 percent of what a man makes in Juneau.
• Prince of Wales - Hyder women make up 47 percent of the workforce earning an average annual wage of $24,850 and earn an average of 79 percent of what a man makes in POW-Hyder.

The Gulf Coast Region’s workforce is 49 percent female, but women earn just 37 percent of total wages reported Wiebold. The area is notable for its high-paying jobs in oil and gas, the industry in which women are least likely to work.

Rural areas with remote work sites, such as the Northern and Rural Interior regions, have higher percentages of men in the workforce according to Wiebold. Mining, oil extrac on, and oilfield services workers are predominantly men, and those jobs are also high-wage. For example, the North Slope Borough, where women earn 59 percent of what men make on average, has a workforce that’s just 20 percent women. Note, however, that the women who work in the North Slope Borough have the highest average wages in the state. - More...
Sunday AM - July 09, 2017

Alaska: Special Session Compromise Proposed; End Cash Credits Now - The Alaska House Majority Coalition on Friday communicated a proposed compromise to the Alaska Senate Majority to address oil tax credit reform, which is the subject of the ongoing Second Special Session of the 30th Alaska State Legislature.

Alaska House Majority Coalition members are supporingt changes to House Bill 111 to end the practice of paying oil companies cash subsidies for certain tax credits. This is expected to save the State of Alaska an estimated $1.5 billion over the next ten years. As part of the compromise, other proposed changes to the current oil tax regime would be discussed during the interim with the hope of reaching compromise on a comprehensive reform bill during next year’s regular legislative session.

“We agree with our Senate colleagues that we should move forward on what we agree on, which is ending cash credits. Paying cash to the oil industry during a fiscal crisis is bad public policy,” said House Resources Committee Co-chair Rep. Geran Tarr (D-Anchorage), Chair of the House Bill 111 Conference Committee.

Tarr said, “The members of our Coalition continue to support broader oil tax reforms but in the spirit of compromise we can accept a simple reform of the cash credits and will push for a working group to work with our consultants to develop a new tax and incentive program.” - More...
Sunday AM - July 09, 2017

Alaska: Marches of the Walking Dead Make Health Care Statements - Alaska residents took to the streets Saturday in downtown Anchorage to ask Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan to do the right thing and vote “NO” on the senate healthcare bill under consideration. The March of the Walking Dead highlighted the life and death reality of this vote for Alaskan citizens from all walks of life. Supporters of the March say Alaska would be hard-hit by the proposed senate healthcare bill with an estimated $2,200 - $2,300 increase in health insurance premiums -- nearly double the next highest projection in the country.

Oli Schiess, a former Marine and resident of Eagle River, said, “This bill hurts Alaska more than any other state. It leaves veterans in the dust and it hurts so many. One cannot expect to take so much away from so many and have society not suffer as a whole.

Another attendee at Saturday’s event, Malena Marvin, a cancer survivor and small business owner from the Southeast Alaska town of Petersburg attended the event in Anchorage after a surgery earlier this week, agreed and stated, “We have to pull off the blinders and see that the Republican healthcare ‘repeal and replace’ would be a self-destructing circus act, if only we were willing to unite and fight for the common sense alternative.” 

The March of the Walking Dead in Anchorage Saturday followed a rally in Fairbanks on July 6th where Santa Claus, a North Pole city council member, asked Alaska's Senators to think about all the children in Alaska who rely on Medicaid when they vote on this bill. - More...
Sunday AM - July 09, 2017

PHIL KERPEN: Democrats Will Be Tested as Menendez Finally Stands Trial - On April 1, 2015 U.S. Senator Robert Menendez and codefendant Salomon Melgen were indicted on 22 felony counts of fraud, bribery, and related offenses.Now, finally, after over two years of Menendez serving as a member in good standing of the Senate Democratic Caucus while under indictment, the trial is set to begin.A last-ditch attempt for yet another delay was rejected by Judge William Walls and the trial date is September 6, 2017.

Menendez delayed the trial by more than two years by arguing that his efforts to intercede on behalf of Melgen with respect to visas for his girlfriends, a Medicare billing fraud investigation, and a Dominican port security contract were all official Senate actions that were protected by the Constitution's speech and debate clause.That argument failed at the district court and on appeal to the Third Circuit; Menendez appealed to the Supreme Court but they declined to take it up.

In the meantime, Melgen has been convicted of 67 counts of Medicare fraud for a scheme that looted $105 million from taxpayers and faces 15 to 20 years in prison if his sentence is not reduced.Melgen allegedly bribed Menendez to scuttle an investigation into precisely this fraud scheme, one of the central allegations in the upcoming trial.

The media, which has largely ignored the whole sordid affair since the initial burst of coverage around the indictment, will soon be forced to confront the daily spectacle of a sitting U.S. senator standing trial.Democratic corruption will come under a microscope. - More...
Sunday AM - July 09, 2017

MARIA FOTOPOULOS: On World Population Day Only Growing Numbers Ahead - Included in the signoff for my emails is reference to the 58 percent decimation of wildlife in just the last four decades, driven largely by loss of habitat due to increasing human demands as world population continues its upward trajectory.

According to the "World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision," published recently by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, we add 83 million people annually. By 2030, Earth's population will be 8.6 billion. Then, 9.8 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100. And, these estimates assume that fertility levels will continue to decline. For some perspective, world population in 1974 was 4 billion, so we've doubled in size in not even a lifetime ---- 55 years.

Nearly 10 billion people on Planet Earth in just another 30 years. We all should be concerned. Very concerned. Our world "thought leaders" in government, business and media should be concerned, because the negative implications of this growth are many and frightening. For natural resources, food, health, safety, infrastructure, work, biodiversity.

Yet, we don't see lead stories in the press about the benefits of stabilizing population; it's not a topic on talk shows and broadcast news. And too many in business have moved more into the fantasy realm (perhaps as a way to take the focus off of their companies that don't actually make money) versus solving real-world problems. Elon Musk is more concerned about squandering billions of dollars in a fantasy of colonizing Mars than fixing Earth-bound problems, while Jeff Bezos is infatuated with drones. - More...
Sunday AM - July 09, 1017