Impact of low-wage work on the economy

In the wake of strikes by Walmart workers last week and fast food workers in New York City this past Thursday, the issue of low-wage work is slowly becoming more prominent. This is a timely, important and essential conversation.

Retail's Hidden Potential, a recent Demos' report about the possibility of lifting 1.5 million retail workers and their families out of poverty, provides hard evidence about the impact of low-wage work on the economy. Now a new study by researchers at Boston College and the University of Massachusetts shows the impact of parents' low-wage jobs on their children.

Analyzing over 100 different data sources, the new study, How Youth Are Put At Risk by Parents' Low-Wage Jobs, estimates that nearly 16 million U.S. families are headed by parents working low-wage jobs and that 1 in 6 adolescents alone live in such households. Read more >>

Number of stay-at-home dads DOUBLED in past decade

Nationwide, the number of stay-at-home fathers - while still relatively small - has more than doubled in the past decade. There were only about 81,000 Mr Moms in 2001, or about 1.6 per cent of all stay-at-home parents. By last year, the number had climbed to 176,000, or 3.4 per cent of stay-at-home fathers, according to U.S. Census data.

While the recession that has left millions of American men unemployed has undoubtedly had something to do with the trend, according to the results of a new study by Boston College, the rise may be more due to choices and evolving gender roles of parents.

And in addition to factors such as maximizing household income and avoiding expensive day care, more fathers than ever before relish the idea of playing a greater role in the rearing of their children. Read more >>