Contribution to Book
Chapter 10: Single-parent familes and in-work poverty
Handbook on In-Work Poverty
(2018)
Abstract
Single-parent families face unique challenges when it comes to in-work poverty. Without a second caregiver and earner, single parents have to compete with dual-earner couples for their position in the earnings distribution. Facing precarious employment and gendered wage inequality, single-parent families face a high risk of experiencing poverty even when they are working. This chapter presents empirical evidence on in-work poverty and inadequate wages in the policy context of 18 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The impact of family structure, occupation, regulations of part-time work, paid parental leave, and various redistributive policies are examined. The authors distinguish three distinct patterns of performance in countries’ approaches to in-work poverty among single parents: a balanced approach of ensuring low inequality on the labor market combined with redistribution; an unbalanced approach of combating in-work poverty mostly through redistribution; and an approach in which high inequality on the labor market is compensated with redistributive policies to only a very limited extent. Countries that rely on a balanced approach to reduce inequality in the labor market, with respect to both class and gender, combined with an adequate level of redistribution, seem best situated for a durable reduction of poverty among working single parents.
Disciplines
Publication Date
January 26, 2018
Editor
Henning Lohmann and Ive Marx
Publisher
Edward Elger Publshing
DOI
10.4337/9781784715632.00016
Publisher Statement
Open Access version of the working paper version of this book chapter is available at http://hdl.handle.net/10419/169247
Citation Information
Rense Nieuwenhuis and Laurie C Maldonado. "Chapter 10: Single-parent familes and in-work poverty" Handbook on In-Work Poverty (2018) p. 171 - 192 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/laurie-maldonado/22/