October 4, 2016

Day Care Costs Factor into Mom’s Work

In 26 states, the average cost of full-time care for just one infant at a day care center approaches or exceeds $10,000 a year, according to ChildCare Aware of America.

No wonder many new mothers (and sometimes fathers) ask themselves: Is it even worth it to work in the first place?

Proposals by both presidential candidates to subsidize care for the nation’s 11 million pre-schoolers amount to non-partisan recognition that parents need some help.

The IRS does provide a child care tax credit of up to $3,000 for one child and to $6,000 for two. But despite this, the United States lags well behind Europe in the financial assistance extended to parents of young children.

The result is that the child care costs shouldered by two-earner American families – the percent of their after-tax incomes that go toward care – are two times what parents pay in countries that subsidize care, such as Germany, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, France and Greece, according to the OECD.

A series of academic studies over more than two decades document a deep and enduring link between steep child care costs and mothers’ decisions to drop out of the labor force.

One study in 2005 found a “striking” impact on mothers when Quebec made child care for pre-schoolers affordable by putting in place subsidies for private day care in the late 1990s, which capped parents’ daily costs at $5. The program spurred big increases in child care use in the province. The study found that universal day care also significantly increased married women’s labor force participation, by 14 percent. …Learn More