Teen mothers grow to become major wage earners as adults: study

Jet, Dec 23, 1996

Teen mothers who have children before they are 18 become successful in the job market by the time they are in their 30s, earn more than young women who have children later in life and rely less on welfare, says a University of Chicago study.

The study questions the belief that teen mothers and their children are a burden to the nation's welfare system. Programs aimed at reducing the rates of teen pregnancy probably have little effect on cutting welfare costs, the study contends.

Teen mothers who receive welfare are part of a disadvantaged group likely to receive welfare at some point in their life whether they have children before 18 or later, the study says. However, by their late 20s and early 30s, these mothers actually earn more than if they had delayed having children because their children are older and the mothers are able to work more hours, the study notes.

By age 34, women who had been teen mothers were earning about $25,000 a year, nearly $5,000 a year more than if they had delayed childbearing until they were young adults.

"These rather startling findings call into question the view that teen-age childbearing is one of the nation's most serious problems, at least in terms of the costs to taxpayers," said V. Joseph Hotz, who headed the research team. "Taxpayers would save virtually nothing if all these women had delayed their first birth by 2 to 2.5 years."