Set Up to Fail draws on academic and policy research as well as workers' own stories to describe the challenges faced by low-wage working parents in meeting their work and family responsibilities. Part I describes the demographics of the low-wage workforce. Part II highlights job conditions that significantly, and detrimentally, affect low-wage working parents. Part III considers the impact of those job conditions on children's health, development, behavior, and school readiness. Part IV examines the barriers that often keep low-wage working parents from accessing the early care and education experiences that could improve outcomes for their children, and the education and training opportunities that could improve their own job prospects. These challenges, while presented separately in this report, are interconnected and inseparable in the lives of millions of families. The instability and stress experienced by parents in the low-wage workforce, and the resulting risks for their children's health, development, and achievement, are serious. But research and the success of on-theground programs point to proven strategies that can help working parents gain greater financial security and provide a better foundation for their children's future success. This report concludes by identifying policy areas in which such strategies are needed, which will serve to frame the agenda for change that is the focus of the next stage of this project. (author abstract)