Parents Magazine: Study Shows the Harsh Financial Reality of Single Parenting in 2025

October 28. 2025

Executive Director Noreen Farrell is featured in a Parent Magazine article about the increasing difficulties of being a single working parent in the U.S.

Noreen Farrell, executive director of the Equal Rights Advocates, tells Parents that modern single parents “face a perfect storm of economic pressures” that have only gotten worse over the last 20 years.

“While the cost of essentials like child care, housing, and health care has skyrocketed—with families now spending 24% of income on child care alone—wages have failed to keep pace, particularly for women who make up the majority of single parents,” Farrell explains.

“Due to persistent wage discrimination, single mothers face compounded economic disadvantages that single fathers simply don’t encounter,” Farrell explains. “Mothers earn just 62 cents for every dollar earned by fathers when looking at all workers, and even among full-time, year-round workers, mothers still earn only 74 cents compared to fathers.” That means, single moms have to work longer than single fathers to earn the same amount, while also balancing caring for their kids.

Farrell adds that for mothers of color, the wage gap is even wider, as Black women earn just 64 cents on the dollar and Latina women earn 54 cents (compared to white men).

Read the article.