age of 35 were employed in private households, but by 1978, only 13 percent held these jobs. Among older white women, only 2 percent worked in private households in March 1978, and 15 percent worked in other service jobs. Nearly a third of the older minority women worked in other service jobs.

EARNINGS

Women aged 40 to 64 years who work full time earn considerably less than similarly aged men in full-time jobs (table 9). The average weekly earnings for women employed full time in May 1978 were $172 compared with $307 for men. Also, women's peak earnings ages were 25 to 34 years. Men's earnings were highest between the ages of 35 and 44 years. These differentials can be explained in part by the recent reentrance into the job market of many middle-aged women after a period of absence. Having been out of the labor force, they often find employers unwilling to credit their previous work experience as evidence of future potential. Consequently, with rusty or outmoded job skills little or no recent job experience, inadequate counseling, and lack of job contacts, they must settle for low skill, low paying jobs which require little or no specialized training and afford little opportunity for upward mobility.

The earnings differential between full-time white women workers and women of minority races was narrower than between white and minority men largely because the earnings of all women are low. Median weekly earnings of minority women aged 40 to 64 who worked full time in 1978 were $160, 8 percent less than the $173 for similarly employed white women in the age group. The differential between white women and women of minority races is expected to be still narrower after 1990. The differential in weekly earnings by race was much wider among. men who worked full time-40 percent. White men averaged $316 compared with $225 for men of minority races.

INCOME

In 1976, the average incomes from earnings and all other sources for all women over age 40 were low-only $5,169 for those aged 40 to 44 years, only $5,331 and $4,054, for women aged 45 to 54 and 55 to 64, respectively (table 10). Among women aged 40 to 44 years who worked year round full time, the average income was $8,564-about the same as the $8,546 for women aged 45 to 54 and $8,451 for women aged 55 to 64 years.

The incomes of middle-aged black women were substantially below those of white women. When comparing women aged 55 to 64 years, black women's incomes were only $2,944, and only $6,459 if they worked year round full time-75 percent of the income for white women who worked year round full time.

Since earnings are the largest income component, the poverty rates of older women reflect their labor force status. The incidence of poverty among middle,. aged women increased with age, and poverty was most common for those women who did not work.

POVERTY INCOMES 2

Among all women aged 45 to 64 years, 9.7 percent lived in poverty in 1977, about the same proportion who had low incomes in 1971-10.9 percent. After age 65 the likelihood of a woman living in poverty increases dramatically, even though the poverty cutoff for an unrelated woman over 65 years old who lives alone is lower than for a similarly unrelated man. Although the poverty rate increases with age for midlife women, there are also differences by race and marital status (table 11).

Women without husbands accounted for nearly 2 of every 3 poor women aged 45 to 64 years in 1977. The poverty rate was highest, however, for married women. whose husbands were absent (separated women), and the poverty rate for these women (36 percent) was on the same as the rate in 1971. About one in five women who were divorced lived in poverty. Of the never married women, 16 percent were below the poverty level.

2 The low income or poverty level classifies persons living in families and unrelated individuals as being above or below this level, using cutoffs adjusted to take in account such factors as family size, sex and age of the family head, number of children, and nonfarm family residence. In 1977, these cutoffs ranged from $2,463 for an unrelated woman aged 65 and over living on a farm and $2,495 for a similar man, to $11,025 for a nonfarm family of seven, one of whom was a related child under 18 years of age. The threshold for a nonfarm family of four persons headed by a female was $6,162, about 6.4 percent higher than the comparable 1976 level of $5,790.

Black women were about 3.5 times as likely to be living in poverty as white women. In fact, black women accounted for 28 percent of all midlife women with poverty level incomes. The highest poverty rate, 45 percent, was for black women who were never married. In 1971, the rate for never married middle-aged black women was also 45 percent. Sizable proportions of separated, widowed, and divorced black women lived in poverty.

Among women aged 55 to 64, the same basic poverty patterns by race and marital status were apparent, although the rates were higher than for women aged 45 to 54. The incidence of poverty among black women aged 55 to 64 years has decreased, however, since 1971-mostly attributable to a reduction in the number of poor black widows.

TABLE 1.-LABOR FORCE STATUS OF WOMEN AGED 40 TO 64, ANNUAL AVERAGES, 1978

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment and Earnings, January 1979.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment and Earnings, January 1979.

TABLE 3.-MEDIAN YEARS OF SCHOOL COMPLETED BY MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN AND MEN, BY AGE AND LABOR FORCE STATUS, MARCH 1977

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Special Labor Force Report No. 209.

TABLE 4.-LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION RATES OF WOMEN BY AGE, RACE, AND YEARS OF SCHOOL COMPLETED,

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Special Labor Force Report No. 209.

TABLE 5.-LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION RATES OF WOMEN, BY MARITAL STATUS, AGE, AND RACE, MARCH 1978

TABLE 6.-LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION RATES OF WOMEN AGED 45 TO 64, BY MARITAL STATUS AND AGE, SELECTED DATES

TABLE 7.-LABOR FORCE STATUS OF WOMEN AGED 45 YR AND OVER, BY PRESENCE AND AGE OF CHILDREN,

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Special Labor Force Report 216.

TABLE 8.-MAJOR OCCUPATION GROUPS OF EMPLOYED WOMEN, BY AGE AND RACE, MARCH 1978

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, unpublished data.

TABLE 9.-MEDIAN USUAL WEEKLY EARNINGS OF FULL-TIME WORKERS, BY SEX, RACE, AND AGE, MAY 1978

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, unpublished data.

TABLE 10-MEDIAN INCOME OF MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN, BY AGE, RACE, AND WORK STATUS, 1976

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Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, "Money Income in 1976 of Families and Persons in the United States.'

TABLE 11.-INCIDENCE OF POVERTY AMONG WOMEN AGED 45 TO 64, BY MARITAL STATUS AND RACE, MARCH 1971 AND MARCH 1977