IWPR: Single Mothers and Their Children Suffered the Most in the Last Year with Persistently High Poverty; Gender Wage Gap Stagnant

9/26/2003

From: Imogen Gunn of the Institute for Women's Policy Research, 202-785-5100 or 202-744-3516 (cell)

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 -- New analysis by the Institute for Women's Policy Research of Census Bureau poverty and income figures reveals continuing economic hard times for women. While single mothers constitute less than one-fifth of all families, they make up half of all families in poverty. Furthermore, almost 40 percent of families headed by African American single mothers lived in poverty in 2002.

"Women heads of households are among the groups taking the hardest hit in the current economic downturn. We need to adjust our public policies to provide them with better support," said Vicky Lovell, IWPR study director. "With unemployment rates three percentage points higher than the average for all adult women, it's clear that single moms face an adverse economic environment."

The new poverty data released today show no improvement in the poverty rate of people living in female-headed households, with 28.8 percent living below poverty in 2002, compared with 28.6 percent in 2001 (see below table). The poverty rate for female-headed families is nearly three times as high as the poverty rate for all families. A striking 38.2 percent of families headed by African American single mothers lived in poverty in 2002, compared to 37.4 percent in 2001. 36.4 percent of people living in families headed by Hispanic single mothers lived in poverty in 2002. Even for families headed by single working mothers, the poverty rate is 21.1 percent. Almost half of children living in female-headed households (48.6 percent) live below the poverty line.

Table 1: Poverty Rates for People by Type of Family and Race

.................2001......2002

- All Families.....9.9.....10.4

- Single Mothers

All................28.6.....28.8

White..............24.3.....24.1

Black..............37.4.....38.2

Hispanic...........37.8.....36.4

Today's release also included data on the relationship between education and poverty status using a more comprehensive 1998 data source. These data show striking differences in poverty by education status: Only 4.6 percent of families where the head of household has a bachelor's degree live in poverty, whereas 26.9 1/2percent of families in which the household heads has less than a high school degree live in poverty.

According to IWPR Director of Research Barbara Gault, "To really help women and their families escape poverty, states and the federal government need to invest in proven anti-poverty measures, such as increasing access to education and training for poor women, making quality child care available and affordable, making welfare-to-work requirements more reasonable, and providing tax credits for the neediest families."

"Many policy makers are suggesting that marriage promotion will provide a panacea for poor-single mothers; this is a superficial, untried solution to a deeply rooted set of problems. We should not spend scarce public dollars on marriage promotion when states are struggling to provide essential services," said Heidi Hartmann, IWPR Director and CEO. "In addition, policy makers continue to try to discourage women raising young children alone from receiving cash assistance and to demand that they work more and more hours. While IWPR analysis of Census Bureau data shows that the average mother works 24.5 hours per week, some policy makers have proposed requiring 40 hours of weekly work effort from welfare moms."

Household income inequality remained unchanged from 2001 and is at a 35-year high. This shows a continuation in the long-term trend of higher-income households receiving a growing share of total household income.

There was also no improvement in the wage gap, or the difference in men's and women's annual median earnings, with women earning only 76.6 percent of what men earned, compared to 76.3 percent in 2001. This unchanging wage gap puts special economic pressure on women workers in difficult economic times. "Efforts such as stronger enforcement of Equal Employment Opportunity laws, more pro-active work by employers to ensure their workplaces are free of discrimination, encouraging women to train for higher-paid non-traditional occupations, and greater participation by men in child-care and other care-giving work would help decrease this gap," noted Dr. Lovell.