Live Chat on Obama's Economic Plan for Women

The Obama for America blog is hosting a live chat on women's economic security with Campaign Deputy National Policy Director Danielle Gray, Domestic Policy Director Neera Tanden, and Economic Policy Advisor Brian Deese for approximately 45 minutes starting at 11:00 am PST.

Here are some details on Obama's plan for working women.

Obama's Plan for Economic Security for America's Working Women

Tax cut for working women. Barack Obama will provide 71 million working women with a tax cut of up to $500--or $1000 per family--to help offset the impact of stagnant wages and skyrocketing costs.

Balancing work and family. Obama will help address the challenge of balancing work and family by guaranteeing seven days of paid sick leave to the 22 million working women who currently have none. Obama will also expand child care tax credits, double funding for afterschool programs to serve 1 million more children, and will create a summer learning program to serve an additional 1 million young people.

Health care for every American. As President, Obama will reduce health care costs by $2,500 for a typical family, while providing affordable health care for every American.

A secure retirement. Obama will strengthen retirement security for working women, who currently enter retirement with less than half the retirement savings of men. Obama's plan will automatically enroll workers in retirement accounts (with the option to opt-out) and make these accounts portable to help working parents save while balancing their family obligations.

Equal Pay. Obama will fight for paycheck equity and to close the pay gap that leaves women earning only 78 cents for every dollar earned by men. The pay gap is even more pronounced for minority working women--with Hispanic women earning only 53 cents and African American women only 62 cents for every dollar of male earnings.

Affordable college. Obama will put the cost of college in reach for by providing a $4,000 refundable tax credit available at the time of enrollment in exchange for community service.

Raise the minimum wage. Obama will help low-wage working women move into the middle class by increasing the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2011, and indexing it to inflation--and expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

Support Women-Owned Small Businesses. Obama will help women-owned small businesses innovate, grow and create jobs by cutting their capital gains tax rate to zero, and implementing the Women Owned Business contracting program that has been abandoned by the Bush Administration.