Why don’t welfare-reliant mothers go to work?

In 1990, Brianna Kerry had graduated from high school and was earning $4.55 anhour as a clerk in a large discount chain store. Because she could not get full-time hours (only twenty-six to thirty-four hours a week), she grossed about $600 a month. She had looked for better jobs, but the San Antonio economy was depressed, and she could find none. When Kerry learned she was pregnant, she called several day care centers for information and learned that the fee for full-time infant care equaled her paycheck. Because she did not see her economic situation improving any time soon and since she had planned to have children eventually, Kerry decided to have the baby. Shortly before her daughter’s birth in 1991, she quit her job and applied for AFDC, food stamps, and Medicaid.