Over the last few decades, the wealth gap in the United States has become an unbridgeable chasm with the wealthiest Americans possessing 190 times more wealth than the least wealthy in the country. Today, the top five percent of income earners in the U.S. have more wealth than the remaining 95 percent of the population.

When the wealth gap is racialized, Latinos and African-Americans hold only a fraction of the wealth of whites. For every dollar of net worth of white Americans, Latinos have 9 cents and African-Americans have 7 cents. For families, close to sixty percent of African-American and Latino middle-class households have no net financial assets whatsoever and live from paycheck to paycheck.

For some, wealth conjures up images of yachts and luxurious homes, but for everyday Americans, the ability to accumulate wealth and assets is about economic survival and security. In real terms, a lack of wealth translates directly into the inability to retire securely, cover the cost of college education for one’s children or ride out periods of financial hardship.

This report issued by the Women of Color Policy Network at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service examines wealth and asset accumulation among single women mothers in the United States. Across racial groups, single women mothers have significantly less wealth and assets compared to their same-race male counterparts.

It is estimated that over 18 million children live in households headed by single women.

Compared to two-parent families, households headed by single women mothers are more likely to live in poverty and have fewer financial assets. Research show that children who are raised in poverty are also more likely to be poor as adults.There is no single reason for the lack of wealth among single women mothers; the reasons are manifold and interrelated: lower wages and life-time earnings, occupational segmentation, lack of access to wealth escalators such as retirement and pension plans and historic structural and institutional discrimination, among others. We know that wealth and assets are better indicators of economic stability and well-being than income. A decent salary only guarantees that an individual will be able to pay the bills today; wealth guarantees that she will be able to pay the bills tomorrow and for generations to come.