Report: Recommendations to support older women in the labor force

Center for American Progress report: Promoting Economic Advancement for Older Women in the Workplace

January 22, 2024

A new report from the Center for American Progress (CAP) says a woman’s experience in the labor force continues to vary significantly from a man’s experience. With 42% of growth in the labor force over the next decade expected to come from people ages 55 or older, and with most of the growth coming from women, CAP says we need to be more proactive in creating a more equitable experience.

Promoting Economic Advancement for Older Women in the Workplace finds that not only are “older women five times more likely than men to have caregiving responsibilities affect their employment status, but women’s wages stagnate earlier in life than men’s. On top of women’s wages stagnating earlier in life, more than one in three older women ages 55 and older earn low wages.

“For older Black women, four in ten earn low wages, and older Hispanic women 52% earn low wages. These lower earnings and stagnating wages translate into lower Social Security benefits and less ability to save for retirement, and it puts women at higher risk of poverty in old age.”

CAP says that as the U.S. economy’s reliance on older women workers grows in the coming years, there are at least three ways to the economic advancement of older women, including:

strengthening age discrimination protections,
improving and supporting workforce development efforts,
and raising the federal minimum wage.

“Older women’s economic prospects should not be constrained by an arbitrary expiration date. Policymakers must take action to strengthen protections against age discrimination, modernize workforce training programs, and raise the minimum wage so that older women can continue to grow and advance in the U.S. economy,” says Beth Almeida, senior fellow at CAP and co-author of the report.

“As our reliance on older women’s participation in the labor force grows, we must ensure that they have the tools and protections to thrive in the economy. Investing in workforce training programs, raising the minimum wage, and strengthening protections for older workers are crucial steps to promoting the advancement of older women in our economy now and for years to come,” adds Christian Weller, senior fellow at CAP and co-author of the report.

You can read the full report here: Promoting Economic Advancement for Older Women in the Workplace
You can read Beth Almeida’s OpEd for WorkingNation here: Career mobility should not come with an expiration date for older women

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.