All Moms Can’t Win the Job Lottery and Shouldn’t Have To

By Linda Garcia Barnard, Director of Finance and Administration at Family Values @ Work

August 15th, 2023 marks moms Equal Pay Day where full-time, year-round working moms catch up to what dads earned in 2022.

According to the  AAUW, that breaks down to moms earning 74 cents to every $1 earned by dads and the ratios are even more staggering for part-timers and women of color.  For decades, the social justice movement has been advocating for new basic labor standards such as paid leave and affordable childcare because moms need a fighting chance to shift the outcomes for future generations. But the struggle continues and is about to get worse in our post-Dobbs world, unless we act now to pass federal policies like the Family Act  and shore up safety nets that help ensure many moms a path from poverty to economic vitality while narrowing the equal pay gap. I speak from experience.

At 15, I became a mom. By 19, I had three sons. I did not know how our lives would turn out, or where to turn. All I knew was that I had to get an education and find a good job to support my family and I did. In 1994, I won the ‘job lottery’ that launched me from public assistance to working class status. Although the nonprofit pay was low (and I subsidized it with student loans but that’s another story!) I had full benefits, a retirement plan, paid family leave, flexible scheduling to pursue my education, paid sick and safe days, and a workplace where I felt supported. These workplace values were truly the rungs of my ladder out of poverty. 

From a teen mom to now a grandmom, I have benefitted from winning a job that provided stability throughout many phases of my life and the wherewithal to respond to opportunities and hardships life brought along the way. But I’ve also witnessed how many family and friends raising children or caring for loved ones were not as fortunate. For most, caregiving responsibilities meant teetering on the brink of economic disaster – in and out of the workforce, on and off public assistance, and in and out of college, resulting in loss of income and earning potential that will be truly realized at retirement age. 

The National Council on Aging reports years spent out of the workforce for caregiving responsibilities—for children, spouses, and aging parents—significantly impact women’s total retirement savings and income resulting in women under 50 having 30% less retirement wealth than non-caregivers (compared to 14% less for men). This is a vicious circle that prohibits building generational wealth and all but guarantees a widening pay gap for moms at every stage in their lives. And these sad but true statistics take into account women having the right to choose whether or not to have an abortion, which is no longer the case in most states.

Today, I am a proud mom of five and grandmother of seven. Thirty plus years later, I continue to work for social justice and worker protections so all moms have a level playing field to build a solid future for their families regardless of their starting position. No one should have to rely on luck to have a job that supports their caregiving responsibilities or path out of poverty. Without strengthening worker rights and expanding work supports for single mothers, we will only create a greater economic divide for our daughters and granddaughters in the years to come.