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Moving Up, Moving Out, or Going Nowhere? A Study of the Employment Patterns of Young Women and the Implications for Welfare Mothers
Author(s) -
Pavetti LaDonna,
Acs Gregory
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of policy analysis and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.898
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1520-6688
pISSN - 0276-8739
DOI - 10.1002/pam.1025
Subject(s) - quarter (canadian coin) , welfare , national longitudinal surveys , welfare reform , welfare system , work (physics) , demographic economics , labour economics , longitudinal data , single mothers , economics , public assistance , public policy , psychology , sociology , economic growth , demography , mechanical engineering , developmental psychology , archaeology , engineering , market economy , history
Conventional wisdom holds that women on welfare will be better off in the long run if they take a job, evenif it means initially having less money to spend on their and their children's needs. Underlying thisthinking is the belief that women who take low‐paying jobs will eventually move up to higher paying jobseither with their current employer or by changing employers. This paper examines the employment transitions ofyoung women focusing on the likelihood that women who turn to the welfare system for support will make thetransition from low‐paying to high‐paying jobs. The data are drawn from the National LongitudinalSurvey of Youth (NLSY). Based on the experiences of women who never received welfare, an estimatedone‐quarter of young women who received welfare could be firmly established in jobs paying more than$9.50 an hour by ages 26 and 27. An additional 40 percent would work steadily but in low‐payingjobs, and more than one‐third would work only sporadically. © 2001 by the Association for PublicPolicy Analysis and Management.