Sorry, you may have misremembered that episode. Season 5, episode 6, "Malcolm's Job": Lois forced both Malcolm and Reese to get jobs. She may have been motivated by a need for more income for the family, but neither worked voluntarily. In fact, she gave Reese free reign to find a job on his own, but arranged a job at the Lucky Aid for Malcolm giving him no choice in the matter. She also seized a lot of his paycheck (though there's no indication that she did the same to Reese).
As she is his parent, there was nothing he could do about it (save getting emancipated like Francis), so one could argue that there was legitimate financial abuse there...even if she was preparing him for that theoretical future job as President for him so that he can be more understanding toward families that make poor financial choices.
Edited by Wordsworth
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Malcolm took the job alongside his mother to help pay for Jamie since their family couldn't really afford it at the time.
I don't feel comfortable calling that particular incident Financial Abuse, since he's willingly allowing them to do so. Unless it's counted under their grand scheme of making Malcolm miserable to test his abilities.
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