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Why Women Should Vote (Overview)
Why Single Mothers Should Vote
Millions of single mothers struggle to provide for their families on their own. Yet our leaders are cutting back on supports single moms need to make ends meet and get ahead.
Single mothers work hard to provide for their families
Three out of four single mothers are in the workforce, and three-quarters of that group works full time.
But single mothers’ earnings are low, and they don’t get the supports they need
The typical single mother working full-time, year-round, earns $26,000, compared to $36,000 for the typical worker
Only 28% of single mothers in the workforce are covered by any type of employer retirement plan, compared with 42% of all workers
Child care costs eat up more of a single mother’s budget: single moms spend 1.5 times as much of their family’s income on child care as married moms
When they filed their tax returns last year, almost a quarter of single-mother families got nothing at all from the tax cuts passed over the last five years
Many single mothers and their children live in poverty
Over one-third (36%) of single-mother families are poor. The percentage of African-American and Hispanic single-mother families living in poverty is even higher (42% and 45%, respectively).
Yet our leaders in Washington have cut supports for single mothers while lavishing tax cuts on the wealthy few
Child care assistance has not been adequately funded. Since 2000, 250,000 children have lost child care subsidies
Child support enforcement funds have been cut. As a result, $8.4 billion in child support—most of which is owed to single mothers—is expected to go uncollected over the next ten years.
Health care benefits have been reduced and costs have been increased for families that rely on Medicaid, the health insurance plan that covers the poorest families in the country—mostly single mothers and their children.
After voting to cut funding for services vital to single moms, Congress voted for another tax cut that gives millionaires an average tax cut of $43,000.
If you think our leaders in Washington aren’t doing what they should to address the challenges you face in your life—REGISTER and VOTE! Remember, elections can be decided by just a handful of votes, so YOUR VOTE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
To register to vote, get information on voting (your polling place, how to vote absentee, etc.), or learn about the candidates in your area, go to http://capwiz.com/nwlc/e4/ and enter your state or zip code.
The National Women’s Law Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that has been working to advance and protect women’s legal rights since 1972. Women’s Voices. Women Vote is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that seeks to mobilize women to register to vote and to go to the polls on Election Day. Neither organization takes positions on candidates or elections, and nothing herein should be construed as an endorsement of any candidate or party.
