New Report Series: The Economic Role of Paid Child Care in the U.S.

Posted by Children First on February 22, 2022

The Economic Role of Paid Child Care in the U.S. Report Series examines the use of paid child care and labor force participation of mothers through a four-part series.

This report’s opening sentence gets right to the point. “One of the most fundamental roles played by child care is enabling parents to participate in the labor force.” Folks from all different walks of life can agree to that statement.

Much of the report covers the same arguments that parents and providers have been yelling from the rafters: parents, especially women, are forced to leave work or higher education because of lack of access to child care. Working class families from both rural and urban settings struggle to afford quality child care. Most families rely on a patchwork of unpaid, informal child care, which may be unreliable and not equipped to meet a child’s unique developmental needs.

This ongoing child care crisis, exacerbated by the pandemic, has economic consequences. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce found that 11% of rural working parents and 13% of urban working parents planned to voluntarily leave their jobs because of lack of child care. And more than half of rural and urban parents pursuing higher education said that lack of child care created significant disruptions to their studies.

Read the Executive Summary.

Read the full report.