9.2 Is there upward mobility for sole mothers in low-wage work?
Kalil, Corcoran, Danziger, Tolman, Seefeldt, Rosen and Nam (1998) state that virtually all participants in the (US) welfare debate agree that in the first period after leaving welfare, recipients will work at low-wage jobs ($5 to $6 an hour). But the hope is that as welfare recipients gain work experience, their wages will grow and they will eventually earn enough to support their families.
Burtless (1995) examined longitudinal data spanning 12 years and found that earnings growth is very slow both for welfare mothers and for mothers who do not receive welfare but are high school dropouts. Wages grew less than 1% per year for welfare mothers whereas wages grew 4.8% for women who did not receive welfare during 1979-1991. Burtless (1995) also found that 50% of all sole mothers on welfare had fewer than 12 years of education. Among these poorly educated women who have received welfare payments at some point during the 12 years, their wages grew by only 6 cents per hour per year. This seems to suggest that low-wage jobs did not provide a ladder to work up to higher-wage jobs for these sole mothers. Kalil et al (1998) conclude from their literature review that getting welfare recipients a job is only the first step in moving them to self-sufficiency, because welfare recipients have a hard time keeping jobs, and their wages grow slowly, if at all, over time.
The lack of advancement provided by the low-wage jobs that sole mothers typically have is also demonstrated by the cycling between welfare and work which characterises many sole mothers. Handler (1995) claims that low-wage work with limited benefits accounts for numerous exits from and returns to welfare. Indeed, research has shown that over the last few decades, many unskilled and semi-skilled sole mothers have cycled between welfare and work (Harris, 1993). Many welfare recipients in the US attempt to exit welfare dependency via work. However for a variety of reasons, such as a lack of health care, the cost of child care, low wages, and jobs that do not last, many of these sole mothers who make the transition from welfare to work end up returning to welfare (Greenberg, 1993). Harris (1993) found by analysing longitudinal data that more than half of welfare recipients leave welfare for work during the first year of receiving benefits. The problem however was that many also return, and then they try again and again. There was significant movement between welfare and work. Harris (1993) estimated that nearly one-quarter of all sole mothers who exit welfare for work return to welfare within one year, 35% within 2 years and 54% within 6 years. Subsequent exits from welfare are also rapid: half leave welfare again within 12 months of their return. Some of them then return to welfare yet again. Harris' (1996) later research concluded that the problem for sole mothers is not usually finding a job, the problem is keeping that job and staying off welfare - in this study about 25 to 40% of all sole mothers who leave welfare via work return to welfare within 1 year, and up to 70% return within 5 years (Harris, 1996). However, sole mothers with more than 12 years of schooling, with prior work experience, and with fewer children are less likely to return to welfare.
For the majority of sole mothers, low-wage work provides the only entry point into paid employment, because (at least in the US, where most of this research has been conducted) most sole mothers lack the education necessary for higher-wage jobs. Thus, low-wage work plays a major role in the labour force participation of sole mothers. But these low-wage jobs do not provide a pathway into higher-wage jobs. Instead, sole mothers appear to become stuck in low-wage jobs indefinitely, because these jobs do not provide opportunities for skill development. As a result of this lack of opportunity for on-the-job learning, and because low wage jobs involve considerable insecurity, many sole mothers give up and return to government benefits, if they are able to.
