Single Parents Competing in a Dual-Earner Society: Social Policy to Level the Playing Field

Abstract

I examine the relative poverty risk among single-parent households in countries that have a large share of households with dual earners. Data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Database are used to analyze eighteen OECD countries in the period 1984 to 2010. I find that single parents face higher relative income poverty risks in countries with a large share of dual-earner households and that this higher risk of poverty is related to higher standards of living in those countries: higher standards of living have raised poverty thresholds, and single-parent incomes are less likely to reach those higher poverty thresholds. I also find that this overall pattern varied across institutional contexts: a rise of dual-earner households puts single parents at a disadvantage only in countries that have relatively low public expenditures on childcare and relatively low income transfer policies.

The Impacts of Dual Earner Income on Work-Life Balance

“…As a result of this shifting trend, more employees than ever before are required to juggle numerous duties such as job, child raising, and personal activities. According to Nieuwenhuis (2022), Table 1 demonstrates that the proportion of dual earners has grown in most nations, even it was not all. As we can see from the table, it showed an increasing trend in dual earner income among families.…”