Book Nook: Work Matters - How Parents’ Jobs Shape Children’s Well-Being

 Work Matters: How Parents’ Jobs Shape Children’s Well-Being by Maureen Perry-Jenkins explores the unique challenges faced by new parents working minimum wage jobs. 

In the U.S. the federal parental leave policy is unfunded, so many new parents earning hourly wages must return to their jobs just weeks after giving birth because they cannot afford unpaid leave.  

• This book asks: How do they do it? And it argues workplace policies and benefits that allow parents time away from work to be caregivers matter a great deal: flexibility and leave time make a huge difference for new parents.  

• As importantly, however, is workplace culture/employer level policies and flexibility: relationships with supervisors and co-workers, autonomy, and time pressure, have long term consequences for parents’ own mental health, the quality of their parenting and, ultimately, the well-being and health of their children. 

• The book is the result of 15 years of study + 1,500 interviews with 370 families, pregnancy through birth and up to first grade and focuses on both mothers –single, married, and “cohabiting” - and fathers and features racial and ethnic diversity (white, Black, and Latinx subjects). 

• There has been a lot of attention paid to the “mommy track” and gender inequities faced by higher earning parents. This addresses a gap in the literature. 

• Biden admin’s policy proposals for subsidized childcare, free Pre-K for all – part of the infrastructure bill - and the recently enacted parental monthly tax credit all make this a hugely timely topic. That said: Perry-Jenkins would argue that policy wonks need to understand it’s more than policy, it’s also the community employers and supervisors create to support employees during these transitions that matter. 

“The work experiences of new parents affect children's outcomes years later. This important book shows the many ways, both large and small, that employers, supervisors, and policymakers can make it easier for men and women in low-wage jobs to parent successfully.”—Stephanie Coontz, author of The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap

“This book underscores that there is no separating work from family, and low-income parents are especially at risk. These stories of their resilience in the face of so few institutional supports are nothing less than amazing. Perry-Jenkins’s policy and practice recommendations are spot-on. Work Matters is timely, informative, insightful, and engrossing—a must-read for everyone who cares about working parents and the next generation.”—Phyllis Moen, coauthor of Overload: How Good Jobs Went Bad and What We Can Do about It

“Work Matters shines a critical spotlight on the need to create workplaces where people feel valued, supported, and cared for. The compelling stories in this book make clear that the way we lead in our organizations affects the way people live.”—Bob Chapman, CEO of Barry-Wehmiller, coauthor of Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family

“With compelling stories and rigorous statistics, Perry-Jenkins provides a moving portrait of the challenges faced by low-wage families. Revising the standard view focused on the pains of these families, Work Matters is a page-turner that reveals why some parents and their children thrive while others falter.”—Naomi Gerstel, coauthor of Unequal Time: Gender, Class, and Family in Employment Schedules

Low-wage workers make up the largest group of employed parents in the United States, yet scant attention has been given to their experiences as new mothers and fathers. Work Matters brings the unique stories of these diverse individuals to light. Drawing on years of research and more than fifteen hundred family interviews, Maureen Perry-Jenkins describes how new parents cope with the demands of infant care while holding down low-wage, full-time jobs, and she considers how managing all of these responsibilities has long-term implications for child development. She examines why some parents and children thrive while others struggle, demonstrates how specific job conditions impact parental engagement and child well-being, and discusses common-sense and affordable ways that employers can provide support.

In the United States, federal parental leave policy is unfunded. As a result, many new parents, particularly hourly workers, return to their jobs just weeks after the birth because they cannot afford not to. Not surprisingly, workplace policies that offer parents flexibility and leave time are crucial. But Perry-Jenkins shows that the time parents spend at work also matters. Their day-to-day experiences on the job, such as relationships with supervisors and coworkers, job autonomy, and time pressures, have long-term consequences for parents’ mental health, the quality of their parenting, and, ultimately, the health of their children.

An overdue look at an important segment of the parenting population, Work Matters proposes ways to reimagine low-wage work to sustain new families and the development of future generations.

Maureen Perry-Jenkins is professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. www.instagram.com/mpj728