was supported by research provided by Edin and Lein (1997). Working from data collected before the Federal Welfare Reform legislation, Edin and Lein collected primary data on the personal finances of 214 single mothers on public assistance and compared the situations of those women with those of 165 of their working counterparts. What they found was not immoral women deciding to have children in order to avoid work and live a life of luxury on welfare, but women struggling to survive whether on welfare or in the workforce.
Edin and Lein (1997) discovered, above all, that mothers who chose low wage work over welfare had an almost impossible task. These women found that the gap between their income and expenses was even greater than that of the welfare mothers (who also faced an incredible gap), because they had more expenses, such as child care, transportation, and health care. They also found that most of the women, both on welfare and in low wage jobs, were actually good, careful consumers, usin
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