Single Mothers and Minimum Wage - Research Paper Example

?Single mothers and minimum wage Introduction: In the recent time in most of the developed and developing countries the growth of the single mother community is rising very sharply. There are many reasons for which this community has arrived. Divorce is one of the main reasons behind this. The rising numbers of divorces have created this community of women who are eventually mother of a child or children and they prefer to leave alone with their children. However, divorce is not the only reason behind this, sometimes early death of the husband also can create these courageous women who prefer to earn their livelihoods of their own and they are happy to live with their children. This is a community which can be taken as a minor community with small number of independent women or rather mothers and the societies have a different notion about these women. However, local government and legislation have some responsibilities over these vulnerable women. The wages of these women must be revised and the legal protections must be given to these community. The present condition of the single mothers and their children: For most of the single mother, the motherhood has two different faces. It is basically the two side of the coin. One side is happiness for being with the child and having a sweet child and the other side is the stress associated with it. The single mothers are facing many financial and physical problems for taking too much pressure and tresses. The single mothers have to do all the work in home and at the same time she has to work outside the home to earn the wages to feed the child. The single mothers are taken to be single with their children by their own will or sometimes they lose their husbands in normal way or by accidents or in one sentence by God’s will or some time by the legal factors like divorce. It is very hard for the single mothers to play the role of the both the parents. It is obvious for the child to ask for love, care concern of the both the mother and father. But in the case of single mothers the responsibilities of father is being handled by het only. There are many single mothers are there who have adopted a child. There are many women are there who have adopted a child but can’t feed them properly due to the lack of financial support. The single mothers are forced to enter the competitive job market and it has been seen that they face many problems related to the jobs and wages. It has been proved those single mothers who are working in low wage jobs are often face many real time hardship than the people who are dependent on welfare. (Mooney et al; 2008, p, 240). Single mothers and minimum wages: Wages or the earnings are the fuel of the family which keeps the family running smoothly. In a normal dual-parent family a husband and a wife both earn to have a smooth life. In many cases it has been seen that in a family the female is the bread earner and the husband looks after the kids and the household choirs. However, in case of the single mothers the work pressure is double as they have to look after the children in the house as well they have to earn to feed the kids. So, as far as the single mother is concern they have to earn moderate income in a smaller time to handle both the pressures. There are many initiatives taken by the governments or the local communities to help these women by eradicating the pathetic effects of minimum wages. There are some policies which are favorable to these communities because the unfortunate children. Most of the policies are concern with the poor children living under the poverty (Neumark, and Wascher, 2008, p. 151). However, if there is one community which has got special attention for most of the policies related to the wages and social security is the community of the single mothers. The group of the single mother has got especial attentions towards the effects of the minimum wages (Neumark, and Wascher, 2008, p. 151). The strong initiatives towards the welfare of the single mothers started in 1996, this initiative given a strong support to the single mothers to do work to live their livelihood and to look after the kids accordingly. The main motive of the initiatives was to help these single mothers to escape the poverty and to vouch for higher minimum wages to run their family smoothly. However, with a single earner in a family it is very hard to have a standard lifestyle. In 1999 there were 12 million American citizens who worked at the minimum wages. Among these 58 percent were female and most important; among these women one million were single mothers (Brym & Lie, 2006, p. 388). During the time of 1938 and 1968 the minimum wages per hour were $ 4 and $7 respectively. However, the rate fall down during the 2004 and it became nearly $ 4.49 per hour (Brym & Lie, 2006, p. 388). This might have happened for the unforgettable effects of the global recession. However, from the respective figures it is very clear that the earnings of the semi skilled single mothers were not too good enough to lead a hustle free life. Ironically in 1998 the earnings of these single mothers would have been much lower the poverty line as the minimum wage per hour was higher than the recent time. There are millions of single mothers in United Sates who live below the poverty line and could not meet the expectations of the lives and could not fulfill the education growth of their children. All the figures show that even after working for full time, it is very hard for a single mother to live a healthy life and to meet the expectation of the children for the better education. However, to overcome this situation and to help these vulnerable mothers the government must take some strong initiatives to provide some benefits to these poor and unfortunate women. Some of the initiatives are mentioned below. Work evaluation for the betterment of the single mothers: The work evaluation is one of the main responsibilities of the government and the local groups to develop the community for the single mothers. The evaluation of the works is taken place after the mutual understanding between the core members of the development team and with the representative from the community members that is the single mother community. During the development faze the weakly community meetings must be conducted. The monthly final meeting is the meeting between the development team and the community members. The outcome of the monthly meeting is been posted to everyone in the targeted community. The quarterly planning meeting is conducted where the plan of action is been taken for the future development of the community. Along with the planning meeting the council meeting is conducted between the council member, representative from the local corporation and the representative of the community members. The council meeting is the meeting where the local council or Local Corporation takes initiatives for the development of the community. Financial strategy for the development of the single mother’s community: The financial back up is the main factor for the development team. Without the financial support the advancement is not possible. The development community members should seek for the funds from different global NGOs. They should conduct small trade fairs for the accumulation of the funds. There are many international NGOs like UNICEF, YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association) (Campfens, 1997, p, 67) etc are there who support these communities. The fund should be properly distributed for the child development, health development and the development of the livelihood of the single mother and their children. It is a very important learning outcome that the economic motivation for the single mother working women should be viewed realistically (Knight, 2010, p, 82). Legal strategy: Legal issues should be handled carefully by the development team members. There are many legal aspects are related with the adoptions. The double standards that are held for the husband and wife following divorce is well documented by the legal process (Hanson, 1994, p, 182) and the custody of the child should be legally approved by the court. However, id the divorce is the reason for the separation and for the reaction of the single mother then the legal system must apply some enforcement to the separated father to provide some amount of money in a monthly basis for the upbringing of the child. This must be mandatory for the separated fathers or the husbands. Interviewing the single mothers: The interviewing the single mother for several times is a great strategy for the development of the community related to the single mothers. The sample size of fifty single mothers can be selected. The questionnaire can be made so that the answers from the question can be documented. The single mothers who are unclear about the importance of the survey can be documented so that afterwards the community development members can clarify the motive of the survey to them. It has been found that low-wage earning single mothers had a higher monthly income that the welfare reliant mothers as the women who are living a happy life with their husbands and children don’t have to worry about earning for the livelihood. However, it has been seen that the low-wage earners monthly expenditure is far higher. (Mooney et al; 2008, p, 240). The single mother women do many pert time jobs to support the family and the child. And that is the reason the accumulated monthly income is higher than the mothers in the two parent families. The motive of the interview process is to find out the needs and requirement of these poor women and also to know the difficulties they are facing to be in the society. From this interviewing process it is easy to get to know what they want from the government regarding the minimum wage related to them. The documentations can be sent to the local authority to take some positive action to fulfill some of the demands of these unfortunate single mothers. Personal and professional development to increase the wage: There are many things to be learnt from the society and there are many things to be learnt to earn more to improve the financial situation of the families of these single mothers. Working as a team member in the development of the community can fetch many experiences which are very much important for the future development of the community and at the same time it gives a great exposure to the real world to earn more. Importance of the unity to change the situation: The community of single mother is consisting of women from different culture and different religions and they speak different languages. To unite all of these people are not an easy job. The cultural diversity is a big problem. Some rituals are accepted by some people and at the same time some people do not accept the facts and they try to protest also sometimes. Most of the African-American single moms are Christian and Muslims. The conflicts occur for the mismatch of the religions. The main learning from the work is the implementation of the nonracial behavior within the community. The subordinate position of the black women in the community is not accepted and the advantage situation of the white women can be adjusted by the nonracial terms (Wellman, 1993, p, 222).The existence of the potential leadership competence is observed throughout the people of the community and the proper leadership can be developed by proper education, training and some inborn leadership qualities among the member of the community of the single mothers (Phillips, and Pittman, 2009, p, 125). Conclusion: The community for the single mothers is a functioning body which has many numbers of women who are mentally and financially tortured. The main aim of the community development members should be to heal the pain of these poor women. It can be said that being a single mother is very much hazardous to mental health (Schlessinger, 2000, p, 126). The motivation is the only healing to these poor women. They have faced many problems in finding jobs to feed their children and on the other side many of them have faced physical torture from their husbands. Canadian research the researchers have found that single mothers go through more psychiatric illness than that of the mothers in two-parent families. The researchers also found that after they have become single mom their mental condition started changing irrespective of the financial problems. (Schlessinger, 2000, p, 126). References Brym R J & Lie J (2006). “Sociology: your compass for a new world”. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Campfens Hubert. (1997) “Community development around the world: practice, theory, research, training”. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Knight George R. (2010). “Myths in Adventism”. Hagerstown: Review and Herald Pub Assoc. Mooney Linda A, Knox David, Schacht Caroline. (2008) “Understanding Social Problems”. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Neumark D, and Wascher W L. (2008). “Minimum wages”. Massachusetts: MIT Press. Phillips Rhonda, and Pittman Robert H. (2009). “An Introduction to Community Development”. London: Taylor & Francis. Schlessinger Laura. (2000) “Parenthood by Proxy: Don't Have Them If You Won't Raise Them” California: Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Wellman David T. (1993) “Portraits of white racism”. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Read More