If she’s a single mother with no paying job that’s one thing.
If she’s a mother with a husband that has a paying job it should be the family income that matters, not whether she has a “job” or not.
I’d do business somewhere else if it is the latter.
From what I read in the article, and there wasn’t much information, it seems as if they denied her a cell phone with a plan. Most of the time, in my experience, that requires an application/contract. If she doesn’t have an income/job, her husband, assuming he has a job/income, would have to sign for the account since he’d be legally responsible for paying the bill.
It should be “family income” that matters but the bottom line will be whoever has the job will be paying/responsible the bill. In our house, my husband’s income is “our” income. And whatever money/income I made is “ours.” Just like the money my mother left me and the money from the sale of my parents’ home is “our” money, I had to add his name to the Money Market or he wouldn’t have access to it, even if I died, he wouldn’t be able to access that account if his name wasn’t on it. His being my husband had no impact if his name wasn’t on that account.
We had an issue with Cingular wireless quite a few years ago. I signed all the checks since I paid the bills but my name wasn’t on the account. I learned this when I tried to change the account. After a fight on the phone, and the Supervisor calling back to appease me and not lose the account, my husband had to add my name to the account in order for me to have control. It was an oversight on our part. We didn’t make the same mistake when we changed cell phone providers...my name is on every account we have now.