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| Below is the newest installation of Research News Reporter (RNR) Online. Each month a new edition will be posted. Previous editions can be viewed in the Archives. |
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May 2003 |
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In
this edition: 1) Critique of recent Heritage report; 2) Kaiser Family
Foundation report on women and family health; 3) Center for Economic and
Policy Research report of child care; 4) The National Campaign to Prevent
Teen Pregnancy report on adolescent’s sexual activity; 5) Women’s E
News article on women and unemployment.
Research
Lowlights: Role
of Parental Work in Child Poverty 1.
Statistical Simulations vs. Reality: A Response to the Heritage Foundation A recent report by the
Heritage Foundation, The Role of Parental Work in Child Poverty, makes
the striking claim that child poverty could be reduced by 72% if only
their parents would work more. Robert
Rector and Rea Hederman assert that the amount of work performed by the
working poor is, in-fact, over-reported in Current Population Survey (CPS)
data and that public policies that promote work over "idleness"
would substantially reduce child poverty. This analysis, in part,
utilizes what Rector and Hederman define as an "expanded measure of
income" to account for the value of food stamps, the Earned Income
Tax Credit (EITC), and school lunch subsidies while deducting FICA and
Social Security taxes from the income of poor families.
Through a statistical simulation, Rector and Hederman suggest that
if those poor families who are currently engaged in less than full-time
year-round employment would increase their work effort to include at least
one full-time worker per family, using their expanded measure of income,
some 3.17 million families would no longer be poor.
While logical, and perhaps statistically sound, this report does
not reflect the true circumstances of many impoverished families.
Problem #1: Where’s the
Beef? …or perhaps more accurately
stated, where are the jobs? The nation’s extended economic slump has resulted in the
loss of millions of jobs over the past three years.
Calling for increased work hours in a context where many, and
particularly those on the lowest end of the economic ladder, find it
difficult to even acquire or maintain employment shows a severe disconnect
from current reality. Problem
#2: Income Supplements are
not Fully Utilized and are Currently Under Attack
While
the Heritage Foundation’s simulation takes into account that only 70% of
eligible food stamp users actually utilize the program, it fails to
account for the difficulty poor families have in receiving the Earned
Income Tax Credit (EITC). The
General Accounting Office estimates that some 4.3 million families that
are eligible for the EITC fail to claim this benefit when filing taxes.
What’s more, recent activities by the IRS foretell an all-out
assault on EITC participants. Plans
are currently underway to force EITC filers to pre-qualify for the program
months before the tax-filing deadline by obtaining difficult, if not
impossible-to-acquire documentation to prove their relationship to the
child they are claiming and to show that the child has lived with them for
at least six months out of the year.
The new, stricter standards of proof would most hurt grandmothers,
aunts, uncles, other relatives or care-takers, and even single fathers.
Many of these filers will be required to obtain marriage licenses
for marriages to which they are not a party, despite the fact that the
release of such information is in fact legally barred in many states.
Furthermore, more strict proof of residency standards would require
a third-party (within the pre-designated limitations allowed by the IRS)
to attest for the residency of the child under penalty of perjury—an
intimidating prospect, to say the least, particularly when threatened by
the IRS. These much stricter
guidelines will certainly have the effect of substantially reducing the
ability of the working poor to take advantage of the EITC.
And although toughened standards may reduce the estimated $6
billion dollars lost to the United States Treasury due to false EITC
claims, the IRS has failed to put in place similarly stringent standards
to recoup the $46 billion lost due to fraudulent corporations, the $70
billion lost in offshore accounts, and the some $132 billion lost as a
result of faulty returns claimed by higher income individuals.
To expect the EITC to be universally utilized and broadly
accessible is a faulty assumption today, and perhaps will be an
impossibility tomorrow. Problem
#3: Full-time, Year-Round
Work is Simply Not Possible for Many of the Poor Despite
their best efforts, many poor adults simply cannot work a full-time, year
round schedule. Many of the
rural poor, for instance, rely on seasonal work to make ends meet.
Once the crops are harvested, work dries up, and for many, the
struggle until next season begins. Those
living in urban areas experience an entirely different set of challenging
circumstances. Miniscule job
growth (when compared to suburban areas), poor job information networks,
and failing public school systems, make obtaining and maintaining
employment particularly challenging for many inner-city residents.
Compound this with the fact that most of the jobs that are
available to this group offer low-wages and little job security. Set within such a context, the inability to acquire sustained
employment is understandable, and is a particularly vexing challenge for
job-seekers of color. The
research of Michael Stoll (1998) for example, suggests that Latinos and
African American men are much more likely to experience bouts of
unemployment during the year than similarly situated white men, and after
losing a job, these groups have a much more difficult time becoming
re-employed than do their white counterparts.
Even calls for marriage would do nothing to eliminate this problem.
It seems the issue here is not one of effort, but rather,
opportunity. Finally,
single-parents face perhaps the most daunting challenge in maintaining
full-time, year-round employment; particularly single women who typically
earn less than similarly qualified single men.
With only one adult in the family who must balance the dual
responsibilities of child-rearing and wage-earning, the costs of
child-care, time lost with the child, and the often inflexible mandates
placed on low-wage workers by employers makes it nearly impossible for
this group—particularly those with little to no informal networks to
look to for assistance—to simultaneously balance the demands of
full-time work and full time responsible parenthood. While statistical simulations
can be a valuable resource in stimulating data-driven informed discussion,
when disconnected from reality, they do little to shed light on the
complexities and challenges associated with the real lives of real people. Research
Highlights: 2.
Women, Work and Family Health: A Balancing Act This
report presents new data on women’s roles in family health care and
examines the impact of these responsibilities on women’s earnings and
careers. Women as mothers
primarily shoulder the responsibilities of managing family health care,
often to the detriment of their careers.
Almost half of working mothers miss work to care for a sick child,
compared to 30% of working fathers. 3.
Who Cares? The Child Care Choices of Working Mothers This
report examines the child care choices made by working mothers of
different economic backgrounds and the effects of recent policies on child
care access. The author finds
that the most common option for moderate and lower-income families is
familial care- care by a parent or a relative- with married working
mothers more often using parental care and low-income working mothers
using relative care. Furthermore,
the cost of formal child care, generally the highest quality and most
reliable child care option, has made it increasingly difficult for women
of all income brackets to access, particularly in light of recent policy
initiatives surrounding welfare. 4.
14 and Younger: The Sexual Behavior of Young Adolescents This
report examines the sexual behavior of the younger subset of adolescents,
aged 10 to 14, whose sexual activity has often been overlooked.
The authors provide a comprehensive resource on this age group’s
sexual activity, pregnancy rate, contraceptive use, dating patterns, and
communication with their parents about sex.
Among the most interesting findings are that nearly one in five
adolescents has had sex before age 15, and more than ten percent of
sexually active adolescent girls report that sex was unwanted.
5.
Safety Net Is Weaker for Unemployed Women http://www.womensenews.com/article.cfm/dyn/aid/1316/context/archive (WOMENSENEWS)--At
the Career Transition Center in Long Beach, Calif., a small group of men
and women sit hunched in front computer monitors, searching a state
database for jobs. One well-dressed woman in her 50s just collected her
last $41 in unemployment benefits. She was laid off from her
customer-service job at an airline last March. Since then, she has juggled
utility bills, paying the phone one month and electricity the next, trying
to keep them both from being shut off. She stopped driving, unable to
afford her car registration and insurance. In January, she started
collecting food stamps. "It
has just been a large, large challenge," says the woman, who did not
wish to be named. "You send out 100 resumes in a month and not hear
from anybody." Women's
unemployment rose to 5 percent in February 2003--up from 4.3 percent in
2000. As of February, women comprised 44.6 percent of the unemployed.
Historically, working women are able to weather recessions because the
industries that typically react strongly to an economic downturn--such as
manufacturing and construction--are still dominated by men. But the
nation's current economic woes defy that pattern. Recent figures show high
unemployment rates in the service and retail sectors, where the majority
of workers are women. As women's joblessness rises to meet men's, however,
the likelihood that they will receive unemployment benefits does not. Report
Indicates Gender Gap in Unemployment Benefits In
41 states, unemployed men are more likely than unemployed women to receive
jobless benefits, according to a report released in March by the National
Employment Law Project in New York. The report, "Between a Rock and a
Hard Place: Confronting the Failure of State Unemployment Insurance
Systems to Serve Women and Working Families," reveals that a majority
of state employment insurance programs have qualification standards that
limit women's access to benefits. "There's an inherent bias built
into the system," says report co-author Rebecca Smith. Almost
all states require workers to meet a minimum income eligibility standard
in order to receive unemployment benefits. Since women make up 60 percent
of low-wage workers, they are less likely than men to meet the income
requirements. When women do qualify for unemployment benefits, their
checks are usually lower than men's because their wages are lower. On
average, women earn 76 cents for every dollar earned by men. Beyond
the wage disparity, family duties also contribute to the
unemployment-insurance gender gap. Women make up 73 percent of all family
primary caregivers, according to research by the National Council of
Women's Organizations in Washington, D.C. Women also comprise 70 percent
of part-time workers. Many are unable to look for full-time work because
they are caring for their children or elderly parents and can't find, or
can't afford, child or elderly care. The National Employment Law Project
report found that in 33 states, workers are not eligible for unemployment
insurance unless they are able to look for full-time jobs. Women who quit
their jobs due to family responsibilities are also unlikely to collect an
unemployment check. Thirty states lack adequate provisions for workers to
collect unemployment when they quit their jobs for family reasons,
according to the report. Women
are also more likely than men to leave their jobs due to sexual harassment
or domestic violence. Though state unemployment programs are designed to
pay benefits to people who lose jobs through no fault of their own, women
who suffer from violence or harassment do not fit that definition in a
vast majority of states. The National Employment Law Project found that
only 13 states allow workers who quit their jobs due to sexual or other
harassment to collect unemployment benefits. Only 18 states have
unemployment insurance that covers women who leave their jobs due to
domestic violence. Female
Heads of Household Hit Hard Single
mothers are especially vulnerable to loss of employment--and their number
among the ranks of the unemployed is growing. Unemployment among female
heads of household was 8.4 percent in March 2003 and 9 percent in
February, according to two "Unemployment Watch" reports released
by the Institute for Women's Policy Research, in Washington, D.C. Over 30
percent of families headed by single moms live below the federal poverty
level. Women who left welfare for work are likely to be counted among
them. The wage and working hour requirements that are part of most states'
unemployment insurance programs are likely to hit these women the hardest. "It's
not fair or realistic to expect workers to be able to support their
families at all times when there's not better social-support
systems," says Vicky Lovell, a co-author of the "Unemployment
Watch" reports that the Institute for Women's Policy Research
publishes on an occasional basis. Part
of the reason unemployment insurance programs have failed to account for
the realities of working women, says Lovell, is that lawmakers believe
unemployment benefits are for people who work full-time for years and are
laid off due to employer work-force reduction. Lovell believes the rules
for receiving unemployment should change to reflect today's workforce.
"Public policy is supposed to be malleable to changes in demographics
and economic circumstances," says Lovell. Former
welfare recipients can be expected to have jobless rates that are twice
the national average, according to research by The Urban Institute in
Washington, D.C. The same research found that, due to the inability to
meet income or other criteria, no more than 20 percent of former welfare
recipients are expected to be eligible for unemployment benefits. With a
five-year lifetime limit on welfare, these women may face an income drop
without a safety net. For
Ebony Jones, that safety net is her mother. In January, the single mother
of two children lost her job as an admissions coordinator at a nursing
home. In most states, unemployment benefits are based on a percentage of
the worker's prior earnings, without considering the number of dependents
a worker has to support. Because of this, low-income single moms are
likely to receive benefits that are too low to meet their families' basic
needs. Jones earned $1,400 a month before she was laid off. Her
unemployment checks total $936 a month, which is not enough to make ends
meet, says Jones. Her mother is paying her rent while she searches for
another job. Efforts
Underway to Improve Access for Women As
of 2001, women made up 46.6 percent of the U.S. work force, according to
the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some states have taken measured steps to
reform their unemployment benefits system to meet the needs of working
women. Maine, New Hampshire, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey and
Massachusetts have pending legislation to extend unemployment insurance to
part-time workers. Legislation that explicitly allows survivors of
domestic violence who leave work due to violence to collect unemployment
benefits has been introduced in Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas,
Illinois, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont,
and West Virginia. The business community forms the main opposition to
unemployment insurance reforms. "Employers
generally oppose expansion of the unemployment insurance system in many
states . . . because they view it as a business expense," says Smith,
of the National Employment Law Project. Any
changes that do come about won't help the women currently out of work. "It's
hard to believe that you're 50-something and you're back at the
beginning," says the Long Beach woman who just collected her last
unemployment check. She continues to fax out five resumes a day, waiting
for a break. Shauna
Curphey is a freelance writer living in Long Beach, Calif. |
