Analysis of new surveys on single mothers in America have revealed that Black single mothers have made huge advancements economically in the last decade, particularly in corporate America.
Both The New York Times and Forbes released reports in the last week highlighting findings from Current Population Survey data and the 2018 Motherly State of Motherhood Survey showing that a number of federal and state policies during the Obama presidency made it somewhat easier for single mothers to work.
The number of single mothers in the country’s workforce has grown by four percent and best-selling author Christine Michel Carter wrote in Forbes that the number of single black mothers who earned more than $75,000 grew 106 percent between 2012 and 2017. This was 30 percentage points higher than single white mothers, according to the survey.
During that same time period, single Black mothers have been able to secure higher income growth than all other single mothers by two percentage points.
Analysts have attributed these gains to a variety of policies enacted during the Obama administration and said it resembled growth seen during the Clinton administration in the 1990s.
Both periods saw an improving economy and low unemployment numbers. But what makes the most recent advances for single mothers strange is that there has been a decrease in federal efforts to provide a safety net.
Carol Burnett, executive director of the Mississippi Low Income Child Care Initiative, told The New York Times that the federal safety net has been "eviscerated and work requirements have increased." But some studies showed that the introduction of Obamacare helped more single Black mothers get to work, and states that adopted Medicare expansion saw significantly more single mothers working.
Researchers in The New York Times report and Forbes had rival theories as to what lead to the recent economic gains, but some said the decreased federal safety net has forced certain states to enact policies that protect and help single mothers like paid leave and public preschool.
Single mothers, especially Black mothers, had no choice but to work with less help coming from the federal level and the growth of America's gig economy was making it a bit easier for them to do so.
“Even with increased wages and even with the changes that are being made around leave policy and the like, employees are still at the mercy of their employers,” University of Michigan associate professor Kristin Seefeldt said to The New York Times.
“The way we think about workers, it’s on us to take care of our personal and family issues. It’s embedded in our culture that it’s not the employer’s job to do that.”
The studies showed that warehouse work, nursing opportunities and gig economy jobs were increasingly becoming avenues for single mothers to make money. A number of states also increased the minimum wage, something that has had a massive effect on increasing the wealth of single Black mothers.
Although the studies found that Black mothers were four times as likely to be single parents than any other race, millennial Black mothers were more optimistic about handling motherhood and a career than any other race.
"Perhaps these single black mothers have discovered the secret to achieving work-life balance, juggling successful careers and parenthood," Carter wrote.
"Taking a deeper look at the largest generation of single mothers in the work force to date, over 23% of black millennial moms feel they can combine a career and motherhood, citing it’s possible to combine them creatively (compared to 14% of all millennial moms)."
