The role of education for poverty risks revisited: Couples, employment and profits from work–family policies

Abstract
This article explores the specific effects of work-related family policies on poverty risks among various educational groups. Based on European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data (2005–2010) and policy indicators drawn from the Multilinks project, we estimated a series of multilevel models for approximately 123,000 households with children below the age of 6 years in 25 European countries.

The results emphasize clear education-specific differences and thus are essential for the ongoing social-policy discourse. Interestingly, with respect to infant childcare, the strongest poverty-reducing effect was identified among women with mid-level education and their families, followed by low-educated women. In contrast, full-time care for children aged 3–5 years reduced the poverty risk only among women with mid- and high-level education and their families, whereas a medium length of well-paid parental leave was observed to be of particular importance to low-qualified mothers.