As kids pack their backpacks for the school year, too many will carry more than school supplies — they’ll carry the weight of the economic stress of their parents and the adults around them. Whether it’s a parent, a grandparent, a child-care worker or a teacher, many of the adults who nurture our children are struggling to make ends meet.
Millions live in households that lack adequate food, housing, clothing and other basic needs. Nearly 1.5 million children experience homelessness, and almost 14 million live in homes that experience food insecurity. This instability spills into the classroom, affecting not only children’s attendance, learning, behavior and opportunity, but ultimately the health of our economy and our society.
While many factors contribute to a struggling education system — including an increasingly underfunded school system and frayed social safety net — we cannot ignore the economic pressures facing the adults whom children depend on every day. Good jobs that offer stability, fair pay and dignity are not just important for workers — they are essential for children’s success and for building a future where all kids can thrive.
Wages are obviously an important part of child well-being. Families with higher incomes are able to provide better nutrition, health care, safer housing and more access to enriching activities outside of the home and school. Children living in households below the poverty line, on the other hand, have worse cognitive development and educational outcomes. Lower socioeconomic status for children can also contribute to poorer long-term health outcomes too.
According to the Current Population Survey, over 10 million households with children have an income of less than $50,000 annually, with about 5 million making less than $30,000. Single mothers have a median income of just $40,000 and more than one in four live in poverty.
Unstable scheduling contributes to economic insecurity for many parents. Workers in the service sector — an industry disproportionately made up of women — are more likely to work on call, receive little advance notice of when they will work, or have last-minute changes to their schedules. Research from the SHIFT Project shows that these schedules are associated with economic insecurity, poorer maternal health and parents spending less time engaged in activities with their kids resulting in worse behavioral outcomes for the kids.
Workplace injuries or illnesses, all too common, can completely devastate households. Parents’ injuries at work lead to emotional and behavioral issues for their children. Workplace stress is associated with lower socioemotional development for children and a higher chance of anxiety.
Respect, voice, dignity and job satisfaction at work also have spillover effects for children. Mothers who have authority and discretion at work have kids who are healthier mentally. Children with parents who report high levels of job satisfaction and who experience work as a place for creativity, challenge and enjoyment are emotionally healthier.
The people we entrust to care for and educate our children also face jobs that undermine kids’ success. The median wage for child-care workers is just $14.30 an hour. Paraeducators and teaching assistants have a median annual salary of just above $35,000. And according to Rand, only a little more than a third of teachers say their pay is adequate while many will spend a part of their precious resources on school supplies for the kids they teach.
The lack of job quality for parents, caregivers and educators invites the question: How can we expect children to thrive and successfully carry our country forward when their parents and so many of the people around them work in jobs that perpetuate instability?
The challenges of job quality run deeper. We tell our kids you can be anything you want, hard work pays off, and education is the path to a good life. Many kids observe something quite different. They see their parents’ dreams deferred by discrimination or a lack of opportunity. They watch their parents work hard, only to struggle to earn enough to get by, and they see how important skills aren’t always the silver bullet to economic security. They see that what we often promise and deliver as a country are two different things.
We are unfortunately at a time when federal support for both education and the labor laws that support workers is declining. Yet, we know what to do. Businesses can do more to build better jobs while reaping the benefits that come from engaged employees that drive productivity and innovation.
Decent wages, predictable schedules, benefits, opportunities for advancement, and healthy workplaces create healthy employees who can better support the children in their lives. Some companies are doing more. UPS has piloted child-care supports to boost retention.
But businesses can’t do it alone. Numerous state and local governments have passed minimum wage increases and laws mandating paid sick time to better support workers. Oregon has a statewide law to provide workers with more stable and predictable schedules. Maine provides monthly stipends to increase the pay of child-care workers. Several states are boosting teacher pay in efforts to retain teachers. Others such as Iowa have launched apprenticeship programs to help paraeducators “earn and learn” their way to becoming teachers.
Guaranteed income is another powerful and evidence-backed tool states and cities are adopting to boost parents’ ability to care for their children and address the lack of good-paying jobs in their labor market. Illinois recently doubled their state Child Tax Credit to $600 per month per child under 12 for qualifying families.
And yet, there is much more to do to invest. The government can invest in care infrastructure and in supporting good jobs for the adults in kids’ lives. We can move away from important benefits being tied to our work and ensure more workers have access to critical needs such as health care and paid time off. We can pass labor laws that ensure work is safe and fairly compensated and that workers have a voice in shaping their work conditions.
If we want our kids to believe who we say we are and realize their dreams, then supporting good jobs in the “village” we all know is needed to support them is more than essential — it’s necessary for the health and success of our country and society.
Matt Helmer is the director of job quality and worker well-being at the Aspen Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program.
