Single-Parent Families, Social Stratification, and Income Inequality in Japan

Abstract

is article aims to investigate the structure of income inequality among single-parent families and its changes from the 1990s to the 2000s in Japan, using the Employment Status Survey collected nationally in 1992 and 2007. e analysis provides the following ndings. First, the variance in household income of Japanese families with children has increased over 15 years, and income inequality has expanded more seriously among single-mother/ father families without other adult members than among other household types. Second, educational expansion greatly improves the educational level of single parents, whereas we can still connrm the concentration of the less educated among single-parent families. ird, the decomposition analysis shows that the educational diieren-tials in household income contribute to the greater income inequality within single-parent families. However, co-residence with other adult members plays an important role in buuering the social diierentiation of household income among single-parent families. ese results suggest that there are gradually growing income disparities within single-parent families, and a welfare-to-work policy that emphasizes the responsibility of the family may result in the worsening economic well-being of disadvantaged single parents and their children.