The "Deservigness" of Single Mothers: Do Child Support Obligations in 5 Countries Change When She Goes to Work?

Contribution to Knowledge Base/Objectives: In a wide range of countries, single mothers supplement their earnings with both public and private transfers, with nonlabor income representing at least one third of their total family income in five European countries and the US (Cancian et al., 2025; Hakovirta & Jokela, 2018) and up to 24% of the total family income in some Latin American countries (Cuesta et al., 2018). Yet, questions about the deservingness of beneficiaries and budget limitations have led to cutbacks in governmental support in many countries, with potential implications for the income packages of single-mother families. Prior research on deservingness has examined how the deservingness concept plays out in the generosity of welfare benefits and the extent to which there are conditions attached to these benefits (e.g., Clasen & Clegg, 2007; van Oorschot, 2000). In this study we extend the lens of deservingness to examine a different role for government, the regulation of how much nonresident fathers should transfer to single-mother families (child support/maintenance). We examine this issue in five countries with different approaches to welfare deservingness: Colombia, Finland, Peru, Uruguay, and the US (examining California and Wisconsin).

Methods: We use data collected from interviews with decision-makers in Peru, Uruguay, and Colombia, and child support experts in Finland and the US to answer two research questions: 1) When fathers have low earnings in these countries, how does the expected amount of child support ordered change when single mothers join the labor force? 2) Does the change in expectations connected to mothers’ going to work differ if fathers have moderate earnings? By using descriptive statistics to compare the differing levels of support expected when mothers are vs. are not working, we infer the extent to which these mothers’ children are seen as deserving of different levels of support. We translate amounts from each country’s currency into 2022 U.S. dollars using Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs).

Results: In most countries we do not find evidence of mother’s paid work—our operationalization of deservingness—changing child support expectations. When fathers have low earnings, in all countries but Uruguay and the US/California, the expected obligation does not change when the mother is doing paid work. In Uruguay, the obligation decreases if the mother is working, perhaps because she is seen as being in less need, or perhaps seen as less deserving by not caring for her children full-time. In the US/California, in contrast, the obligation increases, perhaps because a lower need is more than offset by an increased deservingness, given societal expectations that single mothers should be doing paid work. These results do not differ if fathers have moderate earnings.

Conclusions/implications: Our findings have implications for social welfare policy. With employment instability disproportionately affecting separated parents (Sherman, Fremstad, and Parrott 2004), limiting the role of mother’s paid work in the determination of child support orders could improve single-mother families’ economic stability, with regular child support income increasing both mother’s employment stability (Cuesta & Pilarz, 2024) and total family income (Ha, Cancian, & Meyer, 2011).