Category: Vulnerable Families Research Program

This brief analyzes employed parents’ access to five or more paid sick days annually to care for a sick child in 2008.

“Fleeing Gangs, Children Head to U.S. Border” New York Times July 9, 2014 In summer of 2014, headlines throughout the hemisphere called attention to an unfolding tragedy: the plight of Central Americans fleeing north to escape the violence engulfing their communities. The staggering number of migrants seeking refuge sparked a great deal of debate within the United States, particularly due to the large numbers of children. In 2014, approximately 57,000 unaccompanied minors traveled from Central America to Mexico, continuing north to cross the U.S. border illegally. Once in the United States, most children turned themselves over to U.S. Border Control agents and faced swift deportation proceedings. Others have been temporarily reunited with family members throughout the United States, waiting for the courts to decide their fate. Thus far in 2015, the number of unaccompanied child apprehensions on the southwest border has declined compared to 2014. However, some border crossing zones (particularly the Big Bend and Yuma sectors) report sharp increases in apprehension rates, indicating that migrants and traffickers may be adjusting their tactics to try to elude U.S. border agents.1 In Mexico, apprehension and deportation rates of Central American migrants have almost doubled this year, as Mexican officials have ramped up enforcement efforts at the behest of U.S. officials. Central Americans are still fleeing, but many are detained in Mexico before they reach the U.S. border.

Women’s contributions to family income are essential for most families. This is obviously true for the growing number of single-mother families, but increasingly so for married couple families. While dual-earner families are doing relatively well, family income overall has been stagnant or decreasing among single-earner families, resulting in a widening income gap. This study provides an examination of married and single women’s contributions to family income. Single women are comprised of those who are cohabiting, in same sex marriages, living alone, with parents or other family members, or living with roommates. In this brief, we consider family income for all single and married women. In the case that single women live alone or with nonrelatives, family income is comprised of the woman’s income. Analysis of Current Population Survey data for 2000 and 2013 shows that dual-earner couples have higher family incomes than sole-earner married couples or single women with or without children. Of different family types, married couples in which the husband is the primary earner (the husband earns 60 percent or more of total family earnings) had the highest median family income in 2013 ($101,000), followed closely by married couples in which both spouses had similar earnings ($98,000). In contrast, single mothers with children had the lowest median family income ($30,000). In addition, family income rose among dual-earner couples primarily due to an increase in these wives’ earnings, but declined among sole-earner married-couple and single-women families from 2000 to 2013, contributing to increased inequality. See Box 1 for a definition of terms. Wives in husband primary-earner families consistently contributed 24 percent of family income, while wives in wife primary-earner families contributed 67 percent of family income in 2013. Introduction With women’s rising levels of education, employment, and earnings, the position of women in the family and in society at large has shifted. Women’s contributions to family income are now essential for most families, obviously for the growing number of single-mother families, but increasingly so for married couple families. The increasingly positive trends for women’s economic independence mask variations in their labor market experiences and, by extension, the well-being of American families. While dual-earner couple families are doing quite well in terms of income,1 family income has been stagnant or decreasing among single-earner families, resulting in a widening gap and “diverging destinies”2 driven by family structure, women’s employment, and men’s standing in the labor force. And as life pathways, experiences, and opportunities diverge, shared social experience erodes.3

Seventy-three percent of married rural mothers with children under age 6 work for pay. As men's employment rates have dropped over the past four decades, more rural women are working to keep the lights on at home. Rural women are just as likely as their urban counterparts to work for pay, but they earn less, have fewer occupational choices, and have seen their family income decline as men's wages have not kept pace with inflation. Dr. Smith's report looks at over 30 years of data about women's employment.

The U.S. Census Bureau's release of its American Community Survey data in September 2010 illustrated some expected changes in poverty rates in 2009, the second year of the Great Recession. For young children under age 6, living in poverty is especially difficult, given the long-term effects on health and education. Every region of the country except the West saw increases in rural young child poverty in 2009.