Women and Workforce Investment for Nontraditional (WIN) Jobs Act, H.R. 951

This post Women and Workforce Investment for Nontraditional (WIN) Jobs Act, H.R. 951 originally appeared on Truth About Bills

The Bill: H.R. 951, the Women and Workforce Investment for Nontraditional (WIN) Jobs Act

Annualized Cost: $20 million ($100 million over five years)

According to the most recent Department of Labor statistics, at least 116 occupations are designated as nontraditional jobs for women. The term is used when an occupation has a total female gender makeup of 25 percent or lower. Many of the professions involve heavy industrial or physical labor (such as machinists or firefighters) or work in scientific or technological fields (e.g., chemical engineers or computer network administrators). Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) has introduced a measure that would seek to increase the number of women in these “nontraditional jobs.”

The Women WIN Jobs Act would create a program to award grants to state governments to coordinate partnerships with community-based organizations, business associations, registered apprenticeship programs, or public postsecondary education entity, for a number of purposes:

• Provide technical assistance for apprenticeships to enroll more women in nontraditional occupations;
• Develop policies and protocols that set goals for hiring of a specific percentage of women into apprenticeships and permanent employment openings in publicly assisted projects;
• Engage in public education and outreach to overcome stereotypes about women in nontraditional occupations; and
• Pay for training and technical assistance to overcome gender inequality among employers, apprenticeship programs, and State equal employment opportunity and affirmative action agencies.

The legislation would also establish a 15-member commission to examine and make recommendations for improving the status of women in high-demand, high-wage nontraditional occupations.

According to the text of the bill, H.R. 951 would increase spending by $100 million over a five-year period. The Women WIN Jobs Act was offered as an amendment to H.R. 803, the Supporting Knowledge and Investing in Lifelong Skills (SKILLS) Act, but was not included in the version passed by the House.

This article was originally posted in the National Taxpayers Union Foundation’s Taxpayer’s Tab weekly newsletter on April 19, 2013. The Foundation’s BillTally project scores the potential spending of every introduced bill in Congress.

This post Women and Workforce Investment for Nontraditional (WIN) Jobs Act, H.R. 951 originally appeared on Truth About Bills