Putting Mothers To Work Watching Their Own Kids

by Leigh Graham · 2009-06-23 08:05:00 UTC
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A report released last week shows that

the percentage of underemployed workers in Los Angeles County has doubled in the past year to 18 percent...Underemployment takes a broader look at the economy than official state unemployment figures because it also includes those who have given up on looking for a job or have been involuntarily reduced to part-time employment.

The report, "Ebbing Tides in the Golden State" by the Economic Roundtable also demonstrated that insecure employment has been hit hardest:

“Many of L.A.’s industries that have lost the most jobs in the first year of the recession have high rates of informal employment, including retail trade, construction, non-durable manufacturing, wholesale trade and hotels,” said report lead author Daniel Flaming, president of the Economic Roundtable, which is a non-profit public policy research organization in downtown Los Angeles.

As mentioned here previously, 1099s, those surviving on cash transactions, are really getting slammed in this recession.  And now, California wants to keep unemployed mothers from job seeking and training, and pay them to stay home and care for their kids instead.

Recommendations from the report include land banking by the state for future affordable housing development, raising taxes - especially property taxes, and sectoral investments.  NOT recommended: eliminating welfare and assistance for low-income children.  For now California has preserved CalWORKS, but has planned to cut $270M from it, including for childcare.

I keep writing about California here because it's so prominent and also so reflective of what's happening in states around the country. It's an outsized disaster like Hurricane Katrina that overexposes all the fundamental gaps in our economic and social policies.  And now officials are trying to get creative.  The latest cost-saving measure?  Dropping the requirement for unemployed mothers to pursue job training and work, but instead put them to work caring for their own kids.  Estimated savings range from $140 to $200M.

What do you think?  Should California keep moms from seeking work?  Is it humane to give them more time at home with their infants and toddlers?  Does this restrict or expand a mother's options?

Let the debates about "dependency" and self-sufficiency begin!

(Photo from Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX by Dustin Coates)

Leigh Graham
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