Patrice Onwuka is a senior policy analyst at Independent Women’s Voice and Director of the Center for Economic Opportunity at the Independent Women’s Forum.
Federal Newswire
Explain your recent article about economic security for women.
Patrice Onwuka
The piece, “How to Let Women Age in Place” takes a look at how we provide a hopeful agenda for women when it comes to their retirement security. Women today are stressed out financially, even more than men. Not only are they concerned about life right now, but also their retirement. If they are caregivers, they're also thinking about their parents and whether they will have financial security going into their later years.
I thought, what are the ways we can expand the resources that many women have? As we see the aging baby boomer population, there is going to be a massive wealth transfer for these women who are living longer–probably outliving their spouses if they're married–and that is in the form of their property.
You potentially have at your fingertips not just appreciating assets, but assets that can be generating income when you need it, especially if you're a woman who is no longer able to stay in the workforce.
Federal Newswire
How does your role at IWF address challenges that women face?
Patrice Onwuka
A lot of the work that I do at Independent Women's Forum–a nonprofit educational organization– is looking for smart, common sense solutions to some of these challenges. When it comes to women who are 50 plus [years old], they are at that age where maybe they've progressed in their career or they’re maybe no longer thinking about starting families. They're thinking about what the next step is in their career.
We're trying to think through how we can expand opportunities for them, overcoming some of the challenges that they may face in the workplace. But also, how are we building financial security. How are we ensuring that when it comes to things like health care, they have what they need to take care of themselves or family members.
Through Independent Women's Voice, our sister organization, we wanted to look at this 50-plus demographic of women who are obviously very active in the political space, obviously have assets and resources. and are assuming that no one is thinking about them.
Sometimes we only think about women from a reproductive angle. All issues are women's issues, but we are looking at this demographic in terms of their specific challenges, and how we can provide opportunities or solutions to those challenges.
Federal Newswire
Are we moving in the right direction to place emphasis on business creation?
Patrice Onwuka
Broadly from the economy standpoint, [we’re going] the right direction. From the regulatory government standpoint, [we’re going] the absolute wrong direction. Women-owned businesses make up 39% of all small businesses in this country, and we're talking about 14 million businesses. They tend to be one-woman shops. Nine out of 10 of them are just non-employer firms, meaning that if there's just one person, they are contractors, maybe they're independent.
However, they are earning 1099 income. They're not a W-2 employee of anyone else for their business at least. From a regulatory standpoint, we literally have the Biden administration implementing new restrictions on independent contracting that is going to hit gig workers, freelancers, self-employed Americans, of which there are 70 million of them in this country, and over half of them are women.
We saw a preview of this when California implemented its AB5 regulations. Self-employment fell 10-1/2 percent, according to the Mercatus Center. We're expecting that this is going to spread nationally, and that's a lot right now.
We need to protect flexibility, freelancers, and the independent workforce in this nation from a lot of these regulatory challenges, [at the] state and local level.
Federal Newswire
Is there any way to modify this as it moves forward?
Patrice Onwuka
The great news is that just this week, Senator Bill Cassidy (R) from Louisiana, the Ranking Member on the Senate Health Committee, introduced a Congressional Review Act to overturn the Department of Labor independent contractor rule. He paired up with the Chairman of a subcommittee on the Workforce and Education House Committee, Republican Kevin Kiley out of California.
At the same time, we're also seeing several legal challenges to the rule coming from the Truckers associations, as well as grassroots and freelancer groups. So, whether it is overturned in the courts or through Congress, I think you will see Democrats join with Republicans in overturning this rule.
Federal Newswire
Do you believe more bi-partisanship possible on these issues?
Patrice Onwuka
I do. It's going to be on these smaller issues–although independent contracting 70 million plus people is a pretty big issue. In the op-ed that I wrote “Let Women Age in Place,” I talked about reforming the permitting process and allowing people to turn their unused basements into granny flats. It’s a way of saying, “, if you have a big house, you have all this space, why not be able to convert some of it into a unit that someone else can live in affordably?”
I bring this up as an example of a bipartisan solution, because California has actually been a leader in reforming some of its zoning, regulation, and permitting processes to allow for these additional units to be built or recognized.
I'm hopeful that no matter what happens in November, there'll be organizations like Independent Women's Forum and Independent Women's Voice that are looking for common sense solutions, across the partisan line.
Federal Newswire
Where are the best areas for breakthrough or reform?
Patrice Onwuka
We're seeing bipartisan break through when it comes to workforce development. What we've seen since the pandemic and even before, is that so many middle-skill jobs require a four-year degree when previously they did not.
Because they now require a degree, you have millions of people who are locked out of those opportunities. We’re seeing Colorado, New Jersey, and other states start to say, “Let's remove the four-year degree requirement for most of the state jobs because frankly, most of the state jobs do not need it.” It’s sending a signal to the private sector businesses, “hey, you need to look at your jobs as well.”
You see opportunities like that also in the occupational licenses [workspace]. That's a perennial conservative issue. I always reference hair braiding, but you could be…in the health…or education fields, or yoga instructors, and dog walkers in New York City. You should not need to be certified by the government to do these things.
Federal Newswire
How can people find more about your work?
Patrice Onwuka
Go to https://iwforum.org/ to read some of our policies, simple stuff easily broken down. Go to https://www.iwv.org if you want to take some action. If you would like to learn more about these policies or my quick takes on economic news, follow me on X @onwukapatrice.
