Single mothers remain the hardest hit by gender pay gap: New survey

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Publish Date:: 27 March, 2021
Category:: CNBC
Video License: Standard License
Imported From:: Youtube

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CNBC's Sharon Epperson joins ‘The News with Shepard Smith’ to talk about the story of one single mom and the steps she’s taken to reach her financial goals. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO:

When single mom Lakeesha Brown got divorced six years ago, she opted to forgo child support and instead split custody of her two young daughters with her ex-husband.

It was the best decision she made, said Brown, 43, who lives in Farmington, Connecticut, with her kids, now 8 and 10.

“It was a leap of faith,” she said.

The shared custody allowed Brown to grow her career and her income. She’s now vice president of human resources at a substance use treatment center.

“I was able to move out of a job into something brand new that gave me license to be creative, to have more say, to work directly with the CEO,” she said.

Brown is fortunate. While full-time working women lag behind men in pay, making 82 cents for every $1 a man makes, mothers are even further behind. Moms earn 75 cents for every dollar paid to fathers and single mothers bring in 54 cents for every dollar earned by married men, according to the National Women’s Law Center.

A recent survey shows custody arrangements have a bearing on what single mothers earn. Those with a 50/50 parenting schedule are 54% more likely to earn at least $100,000 a year than those whose kids are with them most of the time, according to the Single Mom Income and Time-Sharing Survey. It polled 2,270 single mothers in the U.S. during the summer of 2020.

“There is a lot of pressure on moms to be the primary parent,” said the survey’s author, Emma Johnson, founder of Wealthy Single Mommy, a website dedicated to single mothers. “That is our culture.”

Jacalyn Shirley, who lives in Ocean Beach, California, has custody of her three children 75% of the time. Shortly after the pandemic hit, the 36-year-old lost her job at a finance company. To make matters worse, when she was offered a job at a bank in June, she said had to turn it down due to lack of child care. Her children are 4, 6 and 14 years old.

In order to meet her kids’ scheduling needs, Shirley started her own mortgage company. However, she can’t devote herself to it full time and is making about 40% of her former salary.

“If I can work 80% of the time, I can bring myself up to 80% of that salary,” Shirley said.

To overcome the pay gap, it is not just about equal pay, it is also about finding an equitable, financial situation for single moms whenever possible, said certified financial planner Marguerita Cheng, CEO and co-founder of Blue Ocean Global Wealth, based in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

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