Boston Globe: Forum addresses struggles of working families
By Katie Johnston
May 19, 2014
CAMBRIDGE - Families are working harder than ever, but falling further behind -- and easing their struggle will require significant policy changes, including raising the minimum wage, closing the gender wage gap, refinancing student loan debt, and creating affordable child care, a group of women lawmakers, economists, and researchers said Monday.
These and other proposals were discussed as part of forum on the challenges facing working families, one of five similar gathering held around the country in advance of a White House Summit on Working Families June 23. Senator Elizabeth Warren kicked off the Cambridge event with a story about her Aunt Bee, who dropped everything to come help Warren, at the time an overwhelmed young mother and law school professor, raise her children.
Today's families are still dealing with the same issues, Warren said, but they have become more acute as costs rise, wages stagnate, and more women enter the workforce.
"No one should work full time and still live in poverty," she said. "And yet a mom who makes minimum wage cannot support herself and a baby."
Read the full article online here.
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