Blog #9: Working Poor Mother's Unpaid Labor

With the national poverty level below $20,000 for a family of four, many low income families fall underneath this guideline. Right now, there are 13 million children that are living in a family with income under the poverty line. It has been said that families of four need to make at least two times this amount in order to make ends meet. These types of conditions severely impact a child's life. Unfortunately, the children do not have a choice, with many of them being too young to work and help provide for their family. 16% of children experience food insecurity, and are not able to eat three healthy meals a day. This can add to the level of disease and sickness in the house which in the end will create medical issues to go unaddressed because of the lack of health insurance. 19% of children living in poverty live without any form of health insurance, which would be a deterrent to visit the doctor because of the extremely high medical bills. Out of all of the families who rent properties, 41% of these families spend over 1/3 of their income on housing. At $20,000 a year, a family of four would have only $13,400 to live off of for the entire year. Most of the time these rental properties are not in safe and secure areas, and are actually dangerous places for these children to be living. Often times, older children do not attend school because they need to work to support their families. Women in low-income families do the best they can with what they have to work with, but often end up setting their child up to follow in their footsteps. They do not have the tools needed to set up their children to have a good adult life.