RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Families’ Job Characteristics and Economic Self-Sufficiency: Differences by Income, Race-Ethnicity, and Nativity
JF RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
FD Russell Sage Foundation
SP 67
OP 95
DO 10.7758/RSF.2022.8.5.04
VO 8
IS 5
A1 Pamela Joshi
A1 Abigail N. Walters
A1 Clemens Noelke
A1 Dolores Acevedo-Garcia
YR 2022
UL http://www.rsfjournal.org/content/8/5/67.abstract
AB Policy debates about whether wages and benefits from work provide enough resources to achieve economic self-sufficiency rely on data for workers, not working families. Using data from the Current Population Survey, we find that almost two-thirds of families working full time earn enough to cover a basic family budget, but that less than a quarter of low-income families do. A typical low-income full-time working family with wages below a family budget would need to earn about $11.00 more per hour to cover expenses. This wage gap is larger for black, Hispanic, and immigrant families. Receipt of employer-provided benefits varies—health insurance is more prevalent than pension plans—and both are less available to low-income families, and black, Hispanic, and immigrant working families. Findings suggest that without policies to decrease wage inequality and increase parents’ access to jobs with higher wages and benefits, child opportunity gaps by income, race-ethnicity, and nativity will likely persist.