Single Mothers and Other Low Earners: Policy Routes to Adequate Wages

This paper addresses the employment environment within which poor single mothers and other low‐wage earners work, and identifies policies to foster economic advancement. Low‐wage workers, often with minimal education and skills that fail to incorporate knowledge of advancing technology, experience more irregularity in work schedules and more frequent unemployment than do workers who are more highly skilled. Despite recent rises in national productivity, low‐wage advancement opportunities remain limited, and inequality in after‐tax income distribution between lower‐ and higher‐income families is growing. New policies are needed to extend low‐earner career potential. The paper highlights three particularly promising policy approaches to enhancing earnings of single mothers and other low‐wage earners—workforce intermediaries that promote specific job advancement programs, community colleges that strengthen vocational and educational foundations, and access to one‐stop centers that foster paid work connectedness. We detail the extent, impact, and needed improvements of these policies, and urge expansion of their availability to benefit single mothers and other low earners and their families.