Working Women Survey OMB-Part A 8-21-2015 Final

OMB Package, Survey of Working Women Women’s Bureau, Department of Labor

Part A:

Supporting Statement

Survey of Working Women

Justification

Supporting Statement

Survey of Working Women

A. Justification

1. Necessity of the information collection

In May 1993, the Women's Bureau (WB) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) spearheaded a project called Working Women Count! to collect valuable information about the realities of women in the workforce. The project included a telephone survey using a scientifically selected, national random sample to uncover and understand the employment challenges and concerns of a diverse population of working women.

Since the release of the Working Women Count! survey data in 1994, economic and social forces have drastically altered the landscape for working women. Specifically, in the last twenty years, there have been significant changes in technology, wealth distribution, family composition and individual debt levels. There have also been changes in educational attainment, wage disparity, health benefits, the number of single mothers in the work force, marriage, divorce rates and birth rates. Additionally job environments; emergence of a more global economy, telecommuting, and continuing significant changes in the racial, ethnic, and cultural demographics of the United States labor force have all shifted.

As a result of these major changes in the economic and employment landscapes, the WB is interested in conducting a Survey of Working Women (Survey) in order to identify women’s current employment issues and challenges and how these issues and challenges relate to job and career decision s, particularly reasons for exiting the workforce. Understanding women’s perceptions about the workplace and their participation in the workforce, as well as their decisions relating to the intersection of work and family obligations, will allow WB to share valuable information and data with employers, advocates and other stakeholders to foster greater collaboration and inform policies and practices that meet women’s changing needs; and foster greater public dialogue on these key issues impacting women in today’s workforce.

Because this data collection is being conducted two decades after WB’s last survey, and there is a need to collect new and unique data, the WB engaged in a rigorous process to develop the Survey questions and to avoid overlap with existing research. The WB commissioned Gallup to conduct a thorough review of the literature and an environmental scan that examined existing research related to the realities of working women’s experience to identify and highlight the research gaps. The literature review resulted in a comprehensive bibliography of research articles, reports, and studies that are relevant to this effort¹ (see Appendix for a full copy). Through the literature review, Gallup identified research gaps and highlighted topic areas for this survey. Specifically, Gallup identified the need for more research among specific populations of working women (i.e. low wage earning workers and women who opted out of the workforce) and around specific topics (i.e. factors impacting working women career decisions and perceptions, off-ramping, and workplace challenges). As such, it is expected that this research will provide an opportunity to gain keen insights into working women’s perceptions about the workplace and their participation in the workforce. This information will help the WB better understand challenges women face in the workplace, as well as the reasons why women exit the workforce (i.e. opting out to care for family, or being forced out due to terminations or layoffs).

This information collection is authorized by 29 U.S.C. 13 (Women’s Bureau Authorizing Statute).

2. Purpose of the information collection

As part of its overall mandate, the WB is the only federal agency responsible for representing the needs of wage-earning women in public policy. WB has a responsibility to connect research with workplace policy and practice. In order to do so, hence WB must identify employment issues and challenges currently facing women. The WB is proposing to conduct a quantitative survey, which would collect information in order to identify employment issues and challenges currently facing women, including their perceptions on career choice and overall equity in the workplace, and also to explore the factors that contribute to women leaving and/or staying out of the workforce. The Survey will address the current information needs of the WB. This research will help the WB support and meet its objectives of:

1. Expanding knowledge

2. Informing policy and practice

3. Fostering collaboration with key stakeholders and

4. Fostering public dialogue on key issues affecting women in today’s workforce.

Survey results will be shared and discussed in different high-level events with the White House Council on Women and Girls and with other federal and state agencies.

3. The use of automation, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques

As stated above, the WB has a contract with Gallup, Inc. to conduct this data collection. Gallup will use its state-of-the-art Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) system to conduct the interviews. All interviews will be conducted using a random-digit-dialing (RDD) representative sample from Gallup’s Daily Tracking Poll (G1K) Recontact List. Both landline and cell phone numbers will be included in the sample to minimize coverage bias. For further details on sampling, please refer to Part B of this package. The Survey will be programmed with filter and skip patterns to ensure that different respondents can be asked about different topics, with some sections of the instrument appearing as abbreviated versions of the longer module. English and Spanish versions of the questionnaires will be available. Gallup will accommodate respondents who are hearing impaired using relay service technology. The CATI scripts will be created from the final English (and Spanish-language) versions of the questionnaire.

4. Efforts to identify duplication

Gallup reviewed all existing information collections related to working women as a component of the literature review. Gallup identified no existing state or national-level information collections that capture the same or similar information.

5. Impact on small businesses

As the information collection will go to individuals, no impact on small businesses, organizations, or government bodies is expected.

6. Consequences of less frequent collection

The WB does not currently have any other plans to conduct a survey of this nature or scale. This Survey is not intended to be recurring or annual, thus a “less frequent collection” analysis is unnecessary.

7. Explain any special circumstances

There are no special circumstances for this data collection.

8. Public comment Federal Register notice and consultation with outside representatives

DOL published a Federal Register Notice on February 26, 2015 (80 FR 10516), inviting public comments about this information collection. There were a total of 7 comments received. Comments were received from EEOC suggesting the survey be more specific regarding demographic information collected to allow for analyses on specific subgroups of women. A comment from the Veterans’ Employment Training Service recommended obtaining veteran status information.The Department made adjustments to the survey to collect additional information on sexual orientation and military status from respondents.

The other comments are categorized as follows: one request for a copy of survey, one comment generically opposed to the data collection expressing a belief employers already know the information this survey is intended to develop, one personal story from a woman in the workplace, and one offer to add to the literature collection. Comments and suggestions from all interested parties were solicited, reviewed and considered in preparing for the final survey product in an effort to efficiently extract required information while minimizing the reporting burden on the public. The Department believes that the revisions made will maximize the utility of the data while minimizing the burden to the public.

Additionally, the WB consulted with Gallup on the design and methodologies for this data collection. Gallup has been conducting public opinion surveys for more than 70 years. Gallup provided recommendations on the clarity of instructions, the data elements to be recorded, disclosed, or reported, and the formats for recordkeeping, disclosure, and reporting based on its experience, as well as survey research best practices.

9. Payment or gifts to respondents other than remuneration to contractors or grantees

Respondents will not receive any payment or gifts for completion of this Survey.

10. Assurances of confidentiality provided to respondents and the basis

Gallup will retain control over the information and safeguard it from improper access, modification, and destruction.. Sensitive information will be protected to the extent allowed by law. Individuals contacted will be assured that their responses will be kept private to the extent allowed by law. Information collected in this Survey is expected to be disseminated publicly and therefore, may result in scientific, management, technical or general informational publications. All publicly disseminated information will be subject to quality control measures and pre-dissemination review pursuant to OMB guidance issued under Section 515 of Public Law 106 554.

To allow external verification and replication of the study findings, as well as additional research, public use data files containing key analysis variables created for the Working Women Survey will be produced at the end of the study and formatted to data.gov specifications. These public use files will follow the current relevant OMB checklist to ensure that they can be distributed to the general public for analysis without restrictions. Steps will be taken to ensure that sample members cannot be identified in indirect ways. For example, categories of a variable will be combined to remove the possibility of identification due to a respondent being one of a small group of people with a specific attribute. Variables that will be carefully scrutinized include age, race and ethnicity, household composition, dates pertaining to employment, household income, household assets, and others as appropriate. Variables will also be combined in order to provide summary measures to mask what otherwise would be identifiable information. Although it cannot be predicted which variables will have too few respondents in a category, the study researchers will not report on categories or responses that are based on cell sizes of less than five. If necessary, statistical methods will be used to add random variation within variables that would be otherwise impossible to mask. Finally, variables that could be linked to identifiers by secondary users will be removed or masked.

11. Questions of a sensitive nature

Gallup will survey workers about potentially sensitive topics regarding instances of alleged discrimination. These questions are necessary because one of the main objectives of this study is to understand current challenges and issues facing women in the workplace. In order to facilitate a suitable environment for potential respondents, when they are reached, individuals will be asked if that is a convenient time to conduct an interview about the workplace. Based on the respondent’s response, the interviewer will either proceed with the phone survey or schedule an alternate time to complete the interview. This will allow the respondent to participate in the interview from whatever location they feel most comfortable, mitigating any risk associated with discussion of this potentially sensitive topic.

12. Burden hour estimates and annualized costs to respondents for the hour burdens

The survey will be conducted with 2700 respondents. Outlined below are estimates of the total burden hours associated with the data collection.

Type of Respondent	Form Name	No. of Respondents	No. Responses per Respondent	Average Burden per Response (in hours)	Total Burden Hours
General Working Population	Survey of Working Women	2700	1	.25	675

The annual monetized cost value to respondents was estimated to be the burden hours estimate multiplied by the median hourly wage rate estimate (Source: Occupational Employment Statistics (OES), BLS).

Type of Respondent	Total Burden Hours	Hourly Wage Rate2	Monetized Value of Respondent Time
General Working Population	675	$17.09	$11,535.75

13. Total annual cost burden to respondents or record-keepers resulting from the collection

There are no start-up or annual operation and maintenance costs incurred by respondents.

14. Annualized cost to the Federal government estimates

The total cost of the study to the federal government is to conduct all surveys is $340,381.34. These costs include the following major expense categories required to conduct this study:

Cost to the Federal Government

Activity	Cost
Conduct Kickoff Meeting	$12,797.80
Review study documents, conduct background research, conduct stakeholder interviews, develop and design3	$19,045.87
Prepare OMB Clearance Package	$24,480.12
Conduct monthly progress meeting	$27,936.24
Administer National survey	$151,093.96
Prepare non-response analysis and report	$23,527.70
Analyze Survey Results and Create final reports and issue briefs	$61,802.65
Prepare and deliver final presentations of results	$19,697.00
Total Cost to the Government	$340,381.34

15. Reasons for program changes or adjustments

This is a first time data collection effort.

16. Plans for publication

The WB currently plans to publish findings from this survey; however, specifics and timeframes have not yet been determined. As previously mentioned, survey results will be shared and discussed in different high-level events with the White House Council on Women and Girls and with other federal and state agencies. It is expected that this research will produce groundbreaking data and that research articles, both by the agency and others, will be a natural outgrowth of the Survey; consequently, a public use data file will be created with the survey results.

17. If seeking approval not to display the expiration date for OMB approval, explain reason(s)

The OMB control number and expiration date will be provided to survey respondents.

18. Exception to the certification statement

There are no exceptions.

1 Gallup, Inc. Working Women: Review of Literature. Washington, D.C.: 2014.

2 http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.htm

3 This includes sampling design, cognitive testing, clearance packages, proofing, programming and translation of both survey instruments.

-7-