Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between household head’s work form (by considering number of hours worked and multiple job holding) and household food insecurity utilizing the Food Security Supplement to the Current Population Survey. Households where the head is employed in multiple jobs, in work with varied hours, or part-time work are more likely to be food insecure than households with a head in a regular full-time job, even when controlling for income and other social demographic characteristics. Models are estimated separately for married couple, cohabiting, male-headed, female-headed and single-person households to show the interaction between work form and household structure. The relationship between food insecurity and nonstandard work arrangements may be due to unstable incomes and complex schedules.
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Notes
In 2008, the Food Stamp Program was renamed SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Throughout the paper Food Stamp Program is used; the literature cited and the data used for the analysis precede the name change.
An assessment of the food security measure resulted in recommendations to USDA to revise the labeling of severe food insecurity from food insecurity with hunger to very low food security (National Research Council 2006). The labels food secure and food insecure were unchanged.
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Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Diane K. McLaughlin, Leif Jensen, Valarie King and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts. Any errors or omissions are the sole responsibility of the author. Views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Economic Research Service or the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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Coleman-Jensen, A.J. Working for Peanuts: Nonstandard Work and Food Insecurity Across Household Structure. J Fam Econ Iss 32, 84–97 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-010-9190-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-010-9190-7