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Poverty and the Single Parent in the United States

Saralynne Liston

Consumer in our Society: SEC 345 45

Seton Hill University

Professor Stubbs

December 4, 2022
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Poverty and the Single Parent in the Unites States

Poverty, a burden affecting 11.6 percent of the United States population according to the census

for 2021. This may seem on the surface like a small amount, but the actual number of people

affected is a staggering 37.9 million people in the United States alone (Creamer et al., 2022). The

poverty guidelines determine that a household of two is considered to be living in poverty if their

household income is below $18,310 (ASPE, 2022). These poverty guidelines are the same for the

entire United States. There are no adjustments made for different geographic locations despite

the differences in cost of living. Single parents carry a great portion of the poverty level in the

United States. Twenty-nine percent of single parents live in poverty, living daily life with a

financial burden as well as a mental and emotional burden to bear (Creamer et al., 2022). There

are some characteristics that increase the risk of poverty such as race, gender, and hugely, a lack

of education. As a once single parent myself living in poverty I can attest to the burden and

hardship this brings to a family. Although there are government programs available to aid those

in the poverty crisis, there must be change made to alleviate the amount of poverty in the first

place and provide families a life with dignity and the ability to exercise their right to participate

in our world.

Living in poverty affects so much of people’s lives other than money. Especially for single

parents, struggling with poverty can greatly affect mental and emotional health. There is a

constant fear of not being able to provide for their child which can lead to feelings of

hopelessness, helplessness, and depression. Parents often go hungry to ensure there is food for

their children. In the extreme, parents may face feelings of suicide due to these difficult

situations they feel they cannot escape. Children are also affected by poverty, and even more so

as a child of a single parent. Children of single parents in poverty are more likely to have
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physical, emotional, behavioral issues, mental health issues, an increased risk of dropping out of

school and lower performance in school. Some of issues are due to children witnessing conflict

and exposure to violence, projected parental stresses, parents working full time and having less

time to spend with their children, fewer economic resources, and lack of necessary support

(Foundation, 2022).

In January 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson declaration of a “War on Poverty” in his first

State of the Union address. He asked congress to “not only relieve the symptoms of poverty, but

to cure it, and above all, prevent it” (Bailey & Duquette, 2014). This drew attention to how many

people were living in poverty and how those numbers changed each year. Mollie Orshansky, an

analyst at the Social Security Administration, proposed a method for counting the poor which

aided the Office of Economic Opportunity to adopt a working definition of poverty in 1965. Two

years later, the first set of poverty estimates was published by the Census Bureau (US Census

Bureau, 2018). Over the years much research was done to understand poverty and improve the

poverty measure. Today, the U.S Census Bureau measures poverty in two ways; with the official

poverty measure, which is based on cash resources, and the Supplemental Poverty Method. This

method includes cash and noncash benefits, such as food stamps and other government

assistance, and subtracts necessary expenses such as taxes and medical expenses.

The existence of poverty is not something that will likely ever be eradicated, but there are ways

to improve and lower the number of those affected. The poverty threshold is used for statistical

purposes by the Census Bureau. It estimates the number of people in poverty each year

nationwide. These people are then classified by residence, race, and other social, economic, and

demographic characteristics, including single mothers and single father- which are the specific

groups I will be focusing on for this project. The poverty guidelines are used for administrative
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purposes. It is issued by the Department of Health and Human Services. These guidelines are

used in determining if a family or person is eligible for assistance from federal programs based

on their household income.

In the United States in 2021, as stated previously, 29 percent of single parents lived in poverty in

the United States. Out of this 29 percent, 3.6 million were single mother households while

869,000 were single father households. Please note that these are per household statistics, and the

number of children in each household is not accounted for. Race also accounts for a difference in

poverty levels. Blacks accounted for almost 1.5 million families while whites, non-Hispanic

accounted for almost 1.6 million families. The rest were other races such as Asian, American

Indian, Hispanic, etc. (Statista - the Statistics Portal, 2022). I could not find specific statistics for

single parents in poverty by education for 2021 so I will go by the U.S poverty population in

general. According to the U.S Census, 27.2 percent of the population living in poverty did not

have a high school diploma while 13.2 percent in poverty did have a high school diploma. This

comparison alone is staggering proof that not completing high school more than doubles your

risk of living in poverty. About nine percent had some college education and only four percent

had a bachelor’s degree or higher (Creamer et al., 2022). It is clear that a higher level of

education greatly reduces the risk of living in poverty.

The government uses poverty guidelines based on household size and income in order to

determine who is eligible to receive certain benefits. These guidelines are unanimous for the

United States which can leave those living in areas with a higher cost of living at a higher

disadvantage. These guidelines are updated annually to account for changes in the cost of living

and are based on the poverty threshold which is also updated annually. The poverty threshold is a

detailed data report to provide a statistical view of poverty in the United States. It includes
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information such as what percentage of people are below the poverty rate, and how they compare

based on age, race, ethnicity, sex, region, and family type. It also includes information on median

incomes and the level of income equality.

The federal government has many programs in place to improve the quality of life for poverty-

stricken families. Some of these programs include SNAP (food stamps,) TANF (Temporary

Assistance for Needy Families,) WIC (Women, Infant, & Children,) free school breakfast and

lunch programs, CHIP (free health insurance for children,) Medical Assistance for parents, HUD

(Housing and Urban Development,) grants for emergency utility costs, just to name a few of the

most familiar ones, and the child tax credit which has successfully lifted millions of children out

of poverty every year. There are even federal grants available to those who desire to further their

education to improve their future quality of life (Grants for Single Mothers in Pennsylvania,

n.d.). Many schools even have programs, such as Mother’s Making More, that offer scholarships

to help single mothers with reduced tuition costs and community support.

Although these programs alleviate a great financial burden to low-income and poverty-stricken

families, there are other things yet to be done in addition to these programs. These programs are

great ways to put a band-aid on the problem of poverty, but we need to find ways to improve the

root cause of poverty and increase the household income of families so they can graduate from

needing government assistance. A couple of ways we can improve this situation is better

education to give kids the chance to have a good foundation for their future selves. Also

increasing minimum wage is necessary considering it has not been raised in thirteen years while

the cost of living has continued to increase.

One way I believe we can achieve a greater success is providing more access to high quality

education. Statistics prove that those with a higher education have a greater risk of obtaining a
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living wage. Not only can adults benefit from better education through college, but much of the

foundation of education begins as early as preschool. There must be an opportunity for kids to

start off on a great path to be adequately prepared for the rest of their educational experience.

There needs to be a high level of quality education, beginning with early childhood education.

Much of the educational issues is due to a lack of funding. This lack of funding then leads to

another large issue, overcrowding. Schools lack the budget for hiring an adequate number of

teachers and students suffer when they do not have sufficient one on one time with students to

help them when they are having problems understanding material.

One way we can add more funding for schools is to make American Fortune 500 companies pay

their fair share of federal income taxes by repealing or reducing tax rules and tax breaks. For

example, over the 4 years, Amazon made 749 billion dollars yet paid only 4 billion in taxes

which means their tax rate breaks down to a federal rate of 5.1 percent while other businesses are

paying a federal rate of 21 percent. Not only did they not pay any federal corporate taxes, but

they actually ended up with a refund. Although they did not break any laws there must a limit to

the loopholes and tax breaks for these large corporations.

Another option would be to implement minimum corporate taxes in domestic and international

levels. Implementing a minimum corporate tax rate of 15% would raise 350 billion dollars over

the course of 10 years (Miller, 2022). With this additional funding, schools can provide better

wages for teachers, hire adequate numbers of teachers, and improve the curriculum to provide

high quality education to our future generations. With increased funding available for education,

we can also provide more grants and scholarships to single parents and poverty-stricken

individuals who desire to pursue higher education after high school. There must be other ways
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we can increase funding in our nation for the benefit of the common good, but these are two

ways that I found to start.

A second and most immediate way to decrease the poverty rate is to increase minimum wage.

This is a common topic that gets debated frequently but that never seems to really get addressed

in my opinion. Minimum wage currently sits at $7.25 per hour and has not been raised since

2009. A person making minimum wage at 4 hours per week is bringing home a gross income of

$1,160 per month. This is before taxes and other deductions such as health insurance and 401K,

if applicable. The cost of living in this day is far beyond that just for basic needs. For an example

of my own expenses, the monthly cost of living for me for just utilities and mortgage is almost

$1,000. That is not including a car payment, car insurance, gas, or food for my household of two,

or any other expenses or emergencies that arise. That is probably even less than what a typical

person may pay who is renting, as the cost of renting most frequently exceeds my monthly

mortgage payment. For many single parents, the cost of childcare must be added to this as well.

Although there are government assistance programs for childcare which is a great help, often

families still must pay a weekly co-pay of some cost.

There has been a lot of talk of raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour. This would more than

double the monthly income of an induvial working a full-time job, bringing the monthly gross

income to $2,400 which I would consider a livable wage, at least for our area. For areas with an

extremely high cost of living such as New York and California, I cannot say. I believe minimum

wage should be raised; however, my opinion (and the opinion of many others) is that $15 is too

high of an increase to start out with. Although the expectation is that more money will be

distributed back into the local economies and increase gross domestic product (GDP,) majority

of businesses are small business. I would fear that this drastic increased cost would force these
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businesses to close, creating an increase in unemployment which leaves us back to square one or

worse off. Many large corporations such as Amazon, Starbucks, and Target have already

implemented a $15 minimum wage, which due the size and success of these corporations is a

possible action, but for many, it is not (Draeger, 2021). Increasing minimum wage to 10 dollars

to start would allow employees to feel a sense of relief while allowing businesses time to feel the

effects of the increase in local consumer purchases. Minimum wage should be incrementally

increased each year until reaching a true living wage and should be re-evaluated every 5 years.

Another, less popular option would be to increase taxes, or implement a unanimous tax rate

across the board, and as mentioned before, eliminating, or reducing some of those tax breaks for

the wealthy.

Paying taxes help the common good and relate to the CST of justice. We have a responsibility to

ensure that all basic needs of our neighbors are met, and they are able to participate in life. A

living wage without the assistance of others enables individuals to live with higher self-

fulfillment and dignity, as it is a right for each human. All human life is made in the image and

likeness of God, and we are all entitled to be treated with dignity. To those who can afford to pay

a little extra, I feel it is our moral right and responsibility to ensure we are doing what we can to

flourish our nation and take care of our neighbors.

Poverty is an all too prominent and severe issue. Many single parents must endure the struggles

of living in poverty all while raising children alone. This leads to many negative factors and

influences in the lives of those involved and the lives of our future generations. We must find

ways to ensure the needs of each human life is met and valued. While we as individuals have a

part to play and can impart small baby steps where we are, the government is where the big leaps

and bounds will happen. Each person is important just because God made them. For us to be
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good stewards of God’s blessings, we must make our table longer, not higher, and value each life

for what is created to be.

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References

ASPE. (2022, January 12). Poverty Guidelines. ASPE. https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-

economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines

Bailey, M. J., & Duquette, N. J. (2014). How Johnson Fought the War on Poverty: The

Economics and Politics of Funding at the Office of Economic Opportunity. The Journal

of Economic History, 74(2), 351–388.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4266933/

Creamer, J., Shrider, E., Burns, K., & Chen, F. (2022). Poverty in the United States: 2021

Current Population Reports.

https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2022/demo/p60-

277.pdf

Draeger, S. (2021, May 7). Increasing the Minimum Wage. Www.ncsl.org.

https://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/increasing-the-minimum-

wage.aspx

Families with related children that are below poverty by family type | KIDS COUNT Data

Center. (n.d.). Datacenter.kidscount.org. https://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/55-

families-with-related-children-that-are-below-poverty-by-family-type?

loc=1&loct=2#detailed/2/2-53/true/1729/994

Foundation, T. A. E. C. (2022, August 1). Child Well-Being in Single-Parent Families. The

Annie E. Casey Foundation. https://www.aecf.org/blog/child-well-being-in-single-parent-

families?gclid=EAIaIQobChMInp_4zJXe-

wIVhrzICh1KEwfJEAAYAiAAEgLZY_D_BwE

Grants for Single Mothers in Pennsylvania. (n.d.). ASingleMother.

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https://www.asinglemother.org/grants-for-single-mothers-in-pennsylvania/

Miller, A. (2022, April 14). How companies like Amazon, Nike and FedEx avoid paying federal

taxes. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/14/how-companies-like-amazon-nike-and-

fedex-avoid-paying-federal-taxes-.html

Statista - The Statistics Portal. (2022). Statista. https://www.statista.com/search/?

q=number+of+single+families+in+poverty&Search=&qKat=search&newSearch=true&p

=1

US Census Bureau. (2018, September 29). Poverty: The History of a Measure. The United States

Census Bureau.

https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/2014/demo/poverty_measure-history.html