Working and Earning

The Impact of Parents' Fair Share on Low-Income Fathers' Employment


For the past two decades, the nation's efforts to reform the welfare system and the child support system have often proceeded on separate tracks. However, there has been a growing realization that neither has very explicitly considered how to work with the group of men who bridge them both: low-income noncustodial fathers whose children receive welfare. The Parents' Fair Share (PFS) Demonstration, run from 1994 to 1996, was aimed at increasing the ability of these fathers to attain well-paying jobs, to increase their child support payments, and to increase their involvement in parenting in other ways. These reports - one examining the effectiveness of the PFS approach at increasing fathers' financial and nonfinancial involvement with their children and the other examining the effectiveness of the PFS approach at increasing fathers' employment and earnings - provide some important insights into policies aimed at this key group.

Document Details

Publication Type
Report
Date
October 2000
Martinez, John and Cynthia Miller. 2000. Working and Earning. New York: MDRC.