Effects of Government Policy on Low Wages and Poverty in Single-Mother Households

Abstract

Despite the high labour participation rates of single mothers in Japan have high poverty rates. This study first analyzed the characteristics of work poverty among single-mother households to estimate the using anonymous microdata from the Employment Status Surveys from 1992 to 2007 to estimate the poverty rates by employment status and household characteristics. The results indicate that working-poverty rate estimated using only the mothers’ employment income exceeded 70％. The increase in the working-poverty rate among single mothers had much to do with irregular employment, short working hours, low educational attainment, and having yonger children.In analyses of the correlation between rates of increase in regional minimum wages and changes in mothers’ employment rates by prefecture, neither single nor marrid mothers had a negative correlations between the minimum wage and employment rate. This finding indicates that the raising minimum wage did not lead to decrease in employment, possibly suggesting that the recent rise in the minimum wage could reduce the working-poverty risk among single mothers.