in other words a broad reduction in child poverty is to be expected here not so much from an increase in the employment rate but from an improvement in the quality of the jobs occupied by parents andor better compensation by the redistributive system for the penalty weighing on the poverty rate a sharp decrease in poverty rates can also be expected from a reduction in the child penalty bom by singleparents in many countries austria belgium chili the czech republic estonia france iceland italy japan lithuania luxembourg mexico portugal sweden tukey and the united states where the lowest poverty rates among single parents occur when the poverty rate for single parents is the same for childless singles table in fact for france and japan the lowest overall family poverty rate occurs when the poverty rate for single parents and childless singles are the same table column