Restructuring Welfare States: Ideology and Policies for Low-Income Mothers

Maureen Baker

For over a decade governments in Australia, Canada and New Zealand have been pressured to reduce taxes and public expenditure. To a large extent, policy is being driven by economic policy. The language of “work incentives”, “moral responsibility” and “employability” can be used by right-wing governments to divert attention from structural unemployment and the inadequacy of social programmes to cope with structural changes in families and the labour force.

This paper looks at national variations in policies based on economic rationalism, and the reasons for and implications of these variations.

The paper concludes that despite the similarities in rhetoric, the pressure on low-income mothers to enter the workforce have been far less in Australia and New Zealand than in Canada. There, a strong emphasis on labour force participation for all citizens is promoted in a context of high unemployment, low minimum wages and a shortage of childcare services.

Under these circumstances, forcing everyone, including low-income mothers, into the labour force may reduce government expenditure on social assistance, but it will likely be at the expense of creating an underclass of low-paid workers who are sporadically and marginally employed. Furthermore, children of these low-income parents are likely to experience more social and health problems.