PAVETTI, LaDonna <br/><br/>
Moving up, moving out, or going nowhere? A study of the employment patterns of young womem and the implications for welfare mothers 

 -  2001 
<br/><br/> Conventional wisdow holds that womem on welfare will be better of in the long run if they take a job, even if it means initially having less money to spend on their and their children`s needs. Underlying this thinking is the belief that womem who take low-paying jobs will eventually move up to higher paying jobs either with their current employer or by changing employers. This paper examines the employment transitions of young womem focusing on the likelihood that womem who  turn to the welfare system for support will make the transition from low-paying to  high-paying jobs. The data are drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Younth (NLSY). Based on the experienes of womem who never received welfare, an estimated one-quarter of young womem who received welfare could be firmly established in jobs paying more then $9.50 an hour by ages 26 and 27. An additional 40 percent would work steadily bu in low-paying jobs, and more than one-third would work only sporadically