On June 10, the House Budget Committee held a hearing, “A Progress Report on the War on Poverty: Reforming Federal Aid.”
“At the same time that the War on Poverty programs have made a difference to low-income families, so have dramatic increases in work effort by families themselves,” said Olivia Golden, executive director, Center for Law and Social Policy. She continued, “Over the past several decades, poor and near-poor mothers have become far more likely to work, even while their children are very young. In 1975, fewer than half of all mothers were in the labor force, and only about a third of mothers with a child under age three, compared to more than 70 percent of all mothers and 60 percent of mothers with a child under age three in 2012. While married mothers were working more in the 1980s and early 1990s, since then, single mothers have closed the gap – despite the obstacles they face and, again, even when children are very young. In 2013, about three quarters of single mothers were in the labor force compared to 68 percent of married mothers, and 57 percent of mothers of infants – under age one – whether married or single.”
The following witnesses also testified:
