WORK, WELFARE, AND SINGLE MOTHERS ECONOMIC SURVIVAL STRATEGIES

Past efforts to conceptualize the effects of welfare on work have fail ed to consider the full range of incentives and disincentives that low -skill single mothers perceive and act upon when making the choice bet ween welfare and work. They also have neglected the fundamental econom ic reality of these mothers' lives-neither welfare nor low-wage work g ives single mothers enough income to meet their families' expenses. In -depth interviews with 379 low-income single mothers in four U.S. citi es show that welfare recipients and low-wage workers employ a set of s urvival strategies to make ends meet. The range of strategies availabl e to mothers is shaped by the social-structural characteristics of the cities in which they live and by the quality of their private social safety nets. We argue that because some survival strategies are more c ompatible with work than others, the strategies a mother employs may a ffect her ability to move from welfare to work. Most welfare recipient s want to leave welfare for work. However most also believe that unles s they can lower the costs associated with work or increase their earn ing power through investments in further education, they will be unabl e to meet their expenses by working.