This paper investigates whether household extension represents a means of reducing employment inequality for Black, Mexican and Puerto Rican single mothers, and how the relationship between household extension and employment is conditioned upon household role and composition. The analysis uses data for single mothers from the 1998-2000 Current Population Surveys. For Black single mothers, those cohabiting outside of marriage or hosting extended household members do not have significantly lower employment rates than White women. Among White and Black single mothers, household extension is associated with increased employment after controls are introduced; this is not the case for most Mexican and Puerto Rican single mothers. Extended households appear to help reduce racial-ethnic inequality in women's employment, but only for Black women. Although the effects of household extension are generally positive, there are important limitations to these benefits.