Little Change in Gender Wage Gap over the years

According to new statistics released by the Census Bureau, American female workers continue to make less money than males for the same amount of work. In short, California employment lawyers find that there hasn't been much change in the status quo as far as gender differences in wages over the past decade are concerned.

According to the statistics, women continue to make 76.5 cents for every dollar, in male wages in 2012. A male worker enjoyed median annual earnings of approximately $49,398 last year, compared with median annual earnings of $37,791 for female workers. The previous year, women earned approximately $.77 for every one dollar men did for the same work.

It wasn't always like this. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, there was significant progress made in narrowing down the wage gap between the genders. However, in the early 2000s, that momentum stalled and there hasn't been a lot of progress since. According to some experts, this is probably because some of the initial factors that were credited with narrowing down the gender differences in wage, including education and legislation, have lost some of their potency.

In other words, female education levels now are very much on par with male education levels, but that fact on its own does not seem to be sufficient to change wage trends, which currently dictate that males get paid more for the same kind of work.   Even so, there has been sufficient progress since the 1980s, when women were paid 60.2 cents for every one dollar that males did.  

There is some good news in the statistics. There seems to have been some progress made in narrowing down the gender gap among younger workers. In 2012, women in the 15 to 24 age group made $ .88 for every dollar that males did. Among women in the 25 to 44 group, the amount fell to $ .81, and in the 45 to 64 group, the amount was $ .74 for every dollar.

Is a Prenuptial Agreement for You?

You don't have to be a multimillionaire or a celebrity to get a prenuptial agreement. Any person who earns well or believes that his potential to earn significantly will increase in the near future, should get a prenuptial agreement to protect his interests.

Prenuptial agreements are also highly recommended if you own your business, or are part of a business, or have other assets that can be at risk of division in the event of a divorce.

Ideally, a prenuptial agreement is highly recommended if one of the partners has a vastly different financial situation from the other. In other words, if your partner or spouse earns much less than you, then a prenuptial agreement will protect your financial interests.

Prenuptial agreements are not just for those who want to protect their rights in the event of a divorce. It is also for those who want to outline and define their financial obligations and responsibilities over the course of the marriage. For instance, you want to divide how the bills will be paid, and a prenuptial agreement can help you do that.

You also need to get a prenuptial agreement if this is your second or third marriage, and if you are bringing children from a previous marriage, or your assets that were accumulated previously into your current marriage.

If your partner has any kind of debt, you may want to consider signing a prenuptial agreement, in order to avoid being saddled with his or her loans in the event of a divorce. This can happen very easily, and a prenup can help protect against any liability from the debts that a spouse brings into the marriage.

Growing up with Siblings Lowers Risk of Divorce

If you have been lucky enough to grow up with multiple siblings, it lowers the risk of filing for divorce later in life. That finding comes from a new study that was conducted by researchers at Ohio State University, which also finds that the risk of divorce drops with the number of siblings that the person has.

The researchers found that there was no difference in the divorce risk of a person with just one or two siblings, and only child. There was no difference in the risk of divorce among these people. However, the picture changed dramatically when more siblings were added to the picture. When the researchers compared children brought up in large families with those who were only children, they found a significant gap in the likelihood of divorce.

This difference in divorce rates depending on the size of the family is not exactly surprising to Los Angeles divorce lawyers. If you have been brought up in a large family, you are used to frequently sharing space and attention with other siblings in the family, and will probably find it easier to navigate the sometimes difficult and muddled waters after marriage. You're probably more likely to compromise, and more open to looking at another person's point of view. That makes for a more successful marriage and a lower risk of divorce.

The researchers however were surprised at how significant the difference was between people, who have large families, and those who were only children or had just one or two siblings. The research was based on more than 57,000 adults across the United States.

Delayed Licenses Allow Teenagers to Bypass GDL Laws

According to a AAA study, the number of teenagers who choose to delay getting their driver’s license is increasing. That means that these teenagers will be able to bypass the provisions of the Graduated Driver Licensing Program when they do decide to get a license. That raises questions about the safety of these drivers, considering that they're able to speed ahead towards a driver’s license without going through any of the normal steps that are included in the California graduated driver’s licensing program.

California has some of the toughest Graduated Drivers Licensing laws in the country. Those laws establish strong guidelines and set restrictions for young novice drivers for night time driving and driving with teenage passengers in the car, besides other restrictions. Many accidents involving teenage motorists occur during nighttime, or when teenage motorists are driving with other passengers of the same age in the car. GDL programs have been widely credited for a drop in the number of teen driver car accident fatalities across the country over the past few years. 

However, in the case of a teen who decides to delay getting a driver’s license till after he finishes high school, many of those restrictions may no longer apply, because he may not be covered under the Graduated Driver Licensing program. An 18-year-old teenage driver may be able to get a license without going through any of the nighttime driving or passenger restrictions. That means that he doesn't have to go through the various steps in the process of obtaining a license, and is not subjected to any of the normal safeguards that the Graduated Driver Licensing program provides.

That could be dangerous, and therefore, the AAA is calling on all states that have graduated driver’s licensing programs to include older novice drivers also under this program.

New Bill to Help Employees Fight Age Discrimination

A new piece of legislation that has recently been introduced aims to modify a Supreme Court decision that made it very difficult for older workers to prove that they were discriminated against based on their age.

The bill is called the Protecting Older Workers against Discrimination Act, and has been sponsored by Senator’s, Tom Harkin, Democrat-Iowa, Chuck Grassley Republican-Iowa and Patrick Leahy Democrat-Vermont. The bill is designed to modify a critical Supreme Court decision that came in 2009 in Gross vs. FBL Financial Services Inc.

Prior to that Supreme Court decision, if a worker could show that there was at least one other motivating factor in a discrimination-related action in the workplace, then the employer had to prove that he would have taken the very same action even in the absence of the discrimination. However, after the Supreme Court 2009 decision, employees are now required to prove that the employer would not have taken the adverse action had it not been for the   employee’s age. That means a significantly higher burden of proof on the employee to prove age discrimination.

This makes it harder for older workers to be able to make their case when they want to sue their employer. The number of lawsuits being filed by older workers is only likely to increase as the senior workforce in the country increases.

The incidence of workplace-related age bias is especially high in California’s Silicon Valley, where employees in their 40s are judged to be aged, and therefore behind the times. According to some estimates, by 2016, as many as one- third of the American workforce will be above the age of 50.

Cohabiting Couples Show Lower Level of Commitment than Married Couples

The number of people who choose to cohabit without getting married has been on the increase several years now.  However, if you are part of a couple that currently lives together or co-habits, then you must know that your relationship has a higher risk of failure compared to married couples.  New research finds that unmarried cohabiting couples may not necessarily have a long-term commitment to each other.

The study by the Rand Corporation finds that unmarried couples living together have much lower levels of commitment to each other, compared to married couples who live together. 

That is definitely bad news for persons who are in cohabiting relationships.  These relationships can offer very low levels of protection and security for the partners involved, and if the relationship breaks down, the cohabiting partners may be at huge risk of financial stress and struggle, especially if they have not bothered to sign a cohabitation agreement.

It is highly recommended that you and your partner sign a cohabitation agreement that clearly outlines all your rights, obligations and duties in black and white.  A written, legal document like this is enforceable, and can help protect your rights if the relationship ends.

For instance, one of the more common issues that arise when a cohabiting relationship ends is the division of any assets that were accumulated by the couple during their relationship together.  Other issues may have to do with the custody of children that were born during the relationship.  These issues must be addressed much in advance, and San Jose family lawyers recommend that you deal with these matters in the form of a cohabitation agreement.

Age Discrimination Laws Failed to Protect Older Workers during Recession

Workplace anti-discrimination laws protecting older employees in the workplace failed to protect these workers during and after the recession.  That information comes from a new study that was released by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

According to the study, workplace anti-discrimination laws protecting older employees did nothing to protect these employees from unfair treatment during the recession.  In order to study the impact of federal anti- discrimination laws protecting older employees, the researchers focused on unemployment and job offers involving candidates aged 55 and above.  They looked at the data in various states before, during as well as after the recession.

They found that while there are federal anti-workplace discrimination laws protecting senior employees, many states have laws in place that do a much better job of protecting older employees from being fired.  They therefore focused on those states that, at least in theory, did afford better worker protections to older employees.  They found that although the laws were very effective in helping protect senior employees from age-based employment discrimination during normal times, they did not seem to work as well during a recession. 

At a time of recession, during large-scale layoffs, and massive job insecurity, these laws did not protect older employees from discrimination.  In fact, in some states, older employees seemed to be much worse off compared to before the recession, in spite of their state having laws protecting them from unfair firing and other wrongful practices.

Moreover, such unfair treatment often led to devastating consequences for the seniors.  When senior employees were fired because of large-scale layoffs, they were less likely to find another job after the termination.