Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

About half of all US children will live with a single parent (most often mothers), with much higher rates among low-income families. Children in single-mother families have access to fewer material resources and are far less likely to have contact with their fathers than those in two-parent families. Thus, fathers’ residential status vis-à-vis the child is an important indicator of their involvement with and accessibility to their children, with potential implications for child well-being.

Research on the influence of economic policies on father involvement has been highly limited. While some studies have examined whether factors like state or local unemployment rates are associated with father involvement, no studies have examined the effects of specific economic policies on fathers’ involvement. Policies that increase men’s wages and income should make them more attractive partners and more reliable contributors to family finances, increasing the likelihood that fathers live with their children. In this paper, we use nationally representative data to examine whether state minimum wages are associated with fathers’ residence with their children in low-income families.

We use data from 2007-2016 from the March Current Population Survey (CPS), an annual, nationally representative survey, which describes the demographic and economic circumstances of US households. We examine the effect of variation in the minimum wage, across states and over time, on children’s residence with their fathers, limiting the sample to low-income families (<200% of the FPL) with children under 18 whose biological mother is in the household (n~120,000). State minimum wage data from the Department of Labor are linked to these survey data by state and year.

This study is innovative in two ways. First, we focus on state-level economic policy that is not specifically focused on fathers, but which may have important implications for their involvement and children’s well-being. Second, we use earnings information from the CPS for low-income men of childbearing age to impute earnings for nonresident fathers, a key measure that is rarely available in survey data.

Our dependent variable is fathers’ residence with their children. For each child, we measure whether their biological father is present and, if so, is married or cohabiting to the child’s mother. Our primary independent variable is the state-level minimum wage. We control for family demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, state-level variables, and year and state fixed effects. Because the minimum wage would likely affect fathers’ residence primarily through earnings, we also focus on the earnings of both mothers and fathers.

We use probit regression to estimate the association of minimum wages with whether children live with biological fathers. Second, we estimate the association between the minimum wage and whether the parents are married or cohabiting, only among those with a resident biological father. Third, we assess the extent to which the effects of the minimum wage are explained by fathers’ or mothers’ earnings. Results from this study should shed light on whether economic policies, which are not explicitly aimed at fathers, can increase fathers’ involvement with children and potentially improve child well-being.