Making Ends Meet During The Great Recession: How Child Care Subsidies Matter To Low-Wage Workers

In the last 15 years, the triumph of neoliberal politics in the United States has been marked in part by the end of welfare "as we knew it" and the long-coming disappearance of the family wage. Remnants remain, such as work supports like child care assistance. In the current context of high unemployment, legislators are debating eliminating child care subsidies. To understand recent employment experiences and the effects of subsidies on the employment of less educated single mothers, the authors conducted in-depth interviews with recipients of child care subsidies in Oregon and found that the subsidies were imperative to their employment.