Not having a job — whether by choice or by circumstance – can adversely affect spiritual and psychological well-being of adults. But living in a home where the parents don’t work can also have a detrimental impact on children.
In a new report, “America’s Work Problem”, Angela Rachidi examines the data related to children in poverty. She finds that while most children in America live with a working adult, those who are in a home without someone working full-time, year-round employment are more likely to be in poverty:
Although work is common in families with children, less than full-time work among the adults in the family still explained the majority (67.2 percent) of children living in official poverty in 2014 (Figure 13). Although full-time work does not necessarily translate into above-poverty income—given that 32.8 percent of children were in poverty even though a full-time worker was in their family—full-time work offers the best path toward higher income, especially when factoring in work-related benefits for families with children, such as the earned income tax credit.
In fact, in 2014, 36.1 percent of children who lived with a working-age adult in poverty according to the official measure were not in poverty when using the supplemental measure.
