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In March 2019, a group of mothers working for Amazon—known as “Momazonians”—organized an information-gathering and advocacy campaign that urged the company to provide a backup child care benefit. The group of nearly 2,000 Amazon employees with young children argues that a lack of affordable child care has prevented talented women from progressing in their careers. These mothers are “tired of seeing colleagues quit because they can’t find childcare.”¹ The Momazonians are calling on Amazon to subsidize a backup child care option for when their primary child care arrangement falls through, similar to the benefits offered by its peers such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google. This employee-led effort demonstrates the clear connection between access to affordable, quality child care and labor force participation—especially for mothers. However, employers cannot solve the nation’s child care crisis alone, and a few days of backup child care do not meet the needs of parents who must coordinate and pay for full-time year-round care.

Today, many families with young children must make a choice between spending a significant portion of their income on child care, finding a cheaper, but potentially lower-quality care option, or leaving the workforce altogether to become a full-time caregiver. Whether due to high cost, limited availability, or inconvenient program hours, child care challenges are driving parents out of the workforce at an alarming rate. In fact, in 2016 alone, an estimated 2 million parents made career sacrifices due to problems with child care.²

Child care challenges have become a barrier to work, especially for mothers, who disproportionately take on unpaid caregiving responsibilities when their family cannot find or afford child care.³ In a 2018 survey conducted by the Center for American Progress, mothers were 40 percent more likely than fathers to report that they had personally felt the negative impact of child care issues on their careers.⁴ Too often, mothers must make job decisions based on child care considerations rather than in the interest of their financial situation or career goals.

There is a growing awareness of the links among access to child care, parental employment, and overall economic growth. Businesses rely on employees, and employees rely on child care.⁵ When problems with child care arise, parents must scramble to find alternative options—or miss work to care for their children. For millions of parents, that insecurity can mean working fewer hours, taking a pay cut, or leaving their jobs altogether.⁶ American businesses, meanwhile, lose an estimated $12.7 billion annually because of their employees’ child care challenges.⁷ Nationally, the cost of lost earnings, productivity, and revenue due to the child care crisis totals an estimated $57 billion each year.⁸

This report highlights the relationship between child care and maternal employment and underscores how improving child care access has the potential to boost employment and earnings for working mothers. Based on new analysis of the 2016 Early Childhood Program Participation Survey (ECPP), it demonstrates how families are having difficulty finding child care under the current system and how lack of access to child care may be keeping mothers out of the workforce. The report then presents results from a national poll conducted by the Center for American Progress and GBA Strategies, which asked parents what career decisions they would make if child care were more readily available and affordable. Finally, the report outlines federal policy solutions that are crucial to supporting mothers in the workforce.

New ECPP findings demonstrate that a mother’s employment is closely tied to her family’s ability to find child care, while the CAP poll finds that with access to more reliable and affordable child care, mothers say they would take steps to increase their earnings and advance their careers. (See Appendix for data sources and methodology)

Key findings include:

• Half of U.S. families reported difficulty finding child care.
• Mothers who were unable to find a child care program were significantly less likely to be employed than those who found a child care program, whereas there was no impact on fathers’ employment.
• In the CAP survey, mothers said that if they had access to more affordable and reliable child care, they would increase their earnings and progress in their careers by finding a higher-paying job, applying for a promotion, seeking more hours at work, or finding a job in the first place.

The current child care system in the United States is broken. The United States must prioritize the needs of millions of working families and take steps to keep mothers in the workforce through investing in policies to support access to affordable, quality child care.

Child care is necessary for parents—particularly mothers—to work and earn an income, yet it has become an increasingly crushing expense for families with young children. Over the past two decades, the cost of child care has more than doubled,⁹ while wages have remained mostly stagnant.¹⁰ Many parents find that child care expenses consume most of their paycheck, and some decide to leave the workforce as a result.¹¹ Typically, mothers are the ones who make that tradeoff.

Research supports that high child care costs and limited financial assistance are driving mothers out of the workforce. Over the past two decades, women’s labor force participation in the United States has stalled while other major developed nations have seen continued growth.¹² The high cost of child care is partly to blame: One study found that the rising cost of child care resulted in an estimated 13 percent decline in the employment of mothers with children under age 5.¹³ What’s more, the nation’s failure to implement policies that support mothers to enter and remain in the workforce—such as child care and paid family leave—explains about one-third of the decrease in women’s labor force participation when comparing the United States with 22 other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.¹⁴

Policies aimed at alleviating the burden of paying for child care have been shown to promote mothers’ participation in the labor force. A growing body of research confirms that policies that help reduce the cost and increase the availability of early childhood education programs have positive effects on maternal labor force participation and work hours.¹⁵ Additionally, a recent CAP study found that since Washington, D.C., began offering two years of free universal public preschool in 2009, the percentage of mothers with young children participating in the labor force increased by 12 percentage points—10 of which were attributable to universal preschool.¹⁶

Expanding mothers’ access to child care and other workplace supports is vital, as American families are increasingly relying on mothers’ incomes. Almost 70 percent of mothers are in the labor force, and in 2015, about 42 percent of mothers were the sole or primary breadwinners in their homes.¹⁷ Black and Latina mothers work at even higher rates and are more likely to be the primary breadwinner in their households than white mothers, with 71 percent of black mothers and 41 percent of Latina mothers serving as the primary economic support for their families.¹⁸ At the same time, women are disproportionately working in low-wage jobs with nonstandard hours and inconsistent schedules.¹⁹ Many of these mothers struggle to find affordable child care that aligns with their work schedules and is available during evenings and weekends.²⁰ Child care challenges, coupled with low-wages and irregular schedules, make it difficult for many mothers to stay in the workforce—whether full or part time.

Moreover, making job changes or leaving the workforce due to problems with child care can have tangible consequences for families’ economic security and mothers’ long-term earnings. Caregiving obligations that interfere with parents’ ability to work can drive families with young children toward financial hardship; in fact, this is a contributing reason that half of young children in the United States live in low-income families.²⁴ In total, American families lose out on an estimated $8.3 billion in lost wages each year due to lack of child care.²⁵ Taking even a short time away from work is consequential: An analysis from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that over a 15-year period, women who took just one year off work had earnings that were 40 percent lower than women who did not take time off.²⁶ Beyond wages, the cost of leaving the workforce can follow mothers for years, as it can also lead to lost retirement savings and benefits.²⁷

This section outlines key findings from the author’s analysis of the 2016 Early Childhood Program Participation Survey (ECPP)—the most recent year of the survey available—exploring families’ experiences finding child care and how they relate to mothers’ employment. The ECPP includes data from 5,837 children and is a nationally representative survey, representing 21.4 million children between birth and age 5. (See Appendix for methodology)

Half of families report difficulty finding child care

U.S. families with young children are having difficulty finding child care to meet their needs. This analysis finds that half of families who looked for child care in 2016 reported difficulty finding it, and nearly 1 million families never found the program they wanted. (see Table 1)

Families’ primary reasons for difficulty finding child care included cost, at 31 percent; lack of open slots at 27 percent; and quality, at 22 percent.²⁸ (see Figure 1) These findings align with research highlighting the range of challenges that parents face accessing child care. While the cost of child care varies substantially by state and child care setting, the national average cost of care for one child in a center amounts to about $10,000 per year—which far exceeds what most families with young children can afford to pay.²⁹ Many families struggle to find a viable child care provider in the first place: A nationally representative survey found that two-thirds of parents say they have “only one” or “just a few” realistic child care options for their child. Moreover, a CAP analysis of child care providers across the country found that half of Americans live in a child care desert, where there are few options for licensed child care at any cost.³⁰

When parents cannot find a child care program, they often turn to relatives to provide care. Among families who reported that they did not find their desired child care program, most decided not to use child care—64 percent—or used care from a relative—24 percent—typically the child’s grandparent.³¹ Meanwhile, families that ultimately found child care predominately reported using a child care center. This finding suggests that relative care may be filling a gap where the licensed child care market is falling short of meeting working parents’ needs.³²

Low- and middle-income families, families of color, and parents of infants and toddlers have an especially hard time finding care

Certain families disproportionately face barriers to accessing child care. The 2016 ECPP survey shows that low- and middle-income families, families of color, and parents of infants and toddlers struggle to find child care, as well as report at high rates that they were unable to find their desired child care program. (see Table 2) Families also cite a variety of reasons for having trouble finding care that shed light on how the current child care system is failing to meet families’ diverse child care needs.

Household income

Overall, families are having difficulty finding child care regardless of their household income, with about half of families across income brackets reporting some degree of difficulty. However, families with incomes of less than $100,000 per year were significantly more likely than higher-income families to say that they were ultimately unable to find the child care program they wanted. (see Table 2)

Families earning less than $100,000 per year identified cost as the primary barrier to finding care, while families in the highest income quartile cited quality concerns and limited slots as the main reasons for difficulty. With the cost of child care amounting to thousands of dollars each year, low- and middle-income families are increasingly priced out of the child care market and struggle to find a program that they can afford. Lower-earning families were also more likely to cite location as a reason for difficulty, which is likely due to a lack of child care infrastructure in lower-income neighborhoods—and perhaps, barriers to accessing affordable and reliable transportation.³³ Together, these factors can constrain child care choices for low- and middle-income families. Higher-income families cite lack of slots and quality as their primary challenges likely because there is greater competition for a limited number of slots in high-quality programs.

More than half of families in the lowest income quartile said that they had no difficulty finding child care—a rate comparable to that of the highest-earning families. This could reflect access to means-tested programs such as Head Start, or the fact that lower-income families turn to relatives and friends for child care and therefore may not have to undergo an extensive search to find someone to care for their child. However, the lowest-earning families also reported that they were ultimately unable to find their desired child care program at about three times the rate of the highest-earning families. This could suggest that Head Start and child care subsidies serve some low-income families well, but that in the absence of that assistance, other families find themselves unable to find an affordable option that meets their needs.

Mother’s race and ethnicity

Overall, mothers of color reported higher levels of difficulty finding child care than white mothers. Notably, Hispanic and American Indian or Alaska Native mothers were more than twice as likely as white mothers to say that they did not find their desired child care program. Hispanic mothers cited “location” as the top reason for difficulty at about two times the rate of white and black mothers, which is consistent with the fact that Hispanic families are also more likely than white or black families to live in a child care desert.³⁴ Black mothers were significantly more likely than white mothers to cite cost as the top reason for difficulty. For a typical black family, the average annual cost of center-based child care for two children amounts to 42 percent of median income, so it is not surprising that black mothers report cost as a major barrier.³⁵

Infants and toddlers

Families with infants and toddlers—children under age 3—are significantly more likely to encounter difficulties finding care than families with 4- and 5-year-olds. Fifty-six percent of families with infants and toddlers reported some degree of difficulty finding care, compared with 45 percent of preschool-aged children. Families with infants and toddlers also reported that “lack of available slots” was the primary reason for difficulty at higher rates than families of preschool-aged children. (see Figure 1) This is consistent with a recent CAP analysis that showed a severe undersupply of child care for infants and toddlers, with infants and toddlers outnumbering available child care slots by more than 5-to-1 overall, and by 9-to-1 in rural areas.³⁶ On the other hand, families with preschoolers were significantly more likely than families with infants and toddlers to report “location” as their top reason for difficulty. This may be because preschool programs tend to be in central locations such as public schools, while home-based infant and toddler care is often available in local neighborhood settings.

Mothers who do not find child care are less likely to be employed

Finding a child care program appears to influence mothers’ ability to work, although there is no impact on fathers’ employment. Among families who sought child care so that a parent could work, mothers were significantly more likely to be employed if their family found a child care program. (see Figure 2) Eighty-nine percent of mothers who found a child care program were employed, compared with 77 percent of mothers who did not find a child care program.³⁷ Whether or not a family found child care had virtually no effect on the likelihood that fathers were employed, as about 95 percent of fathers were working in either case.

Single mothers experienced steep drops in employment when they were unable to find a child care program. Specifically, the employment rate fell from 84 percent among single mothers who found a child care program to 67 percent among those who did not. For comparison, employment among mothers in two-parent households decreased from 90 percent to 84 percent when the mother did not find care. Single mothers are often both the primary earner and caregiver in their households, making child care access a necessity for these mothers to remain employed. Without access to formal child care, single mothers typically rely on a patchwork of care from family and friends, which can be difficult to secure consistently. A growing body of research has demonstrated that child care assistance has a substantial impact for single mothers. In fact, child care subsidy receipt and kindergarten enrollment are associated with higher rates of employment and enrollment in job training or education programs among single mothers.³⁸

These findings should come as no surprise. Child-rearing responsibilities disproportionately fall on mothers, so problems with child care most frequently result in mothers making career sacrifices.³⁹ While some families prefer for a stay-at-home parent to care for children, most families rely on two paychecks or the single parent’s paycheck to make ends meet. In the absence of viable child care options, mothers are often forced to modify their work schedules, settle for lower-quality care, or leave the workforce altogether—a decision that can jeopardize their family’s financial security.

The current state of child care in the United States is creating a financial squeeze for working families and driving some mothers out of the labor force. Yet when asked to envision a world in which they had affordable, reliable child care, mothers overwhelmingly said that they would make changes to increase their earnings and seek new job opportunities. Results from a nationally representative poll conducted by CAP and GBA Strategies in June 2018 suggest that increasing access to affordable and reliable child care could give mothers the flexibility to pursue opportunities that can increase earnings and even allow them to advance at work. (see Table 3)

Mothers say they would increase their earnings and seek new job opportunities if they had better access to child care

The most common changes mothers said they would make were looking for a higher-paying job, at 42 percent, and asking for more hours at work, at 31 percent. (see Table 3) This finding likely reflects the fact that many mothers are earning low wages. Nationally, 1 in 5 working mothers with a child age 3 or under work in a low-wage job, and women represent about two-thirds of the low-wage workforce.⁴⁰ For these mothers in particular, child care costs consume much of their take-home pay. Additionally, child care availability often dictates when and where mothers can work, as many mothers decide to work during nonstandard hours or take on a less demanding job so they can care for their children.⁴¹ Alleviating the burden of paying for child care could free up mothers to pick up additional shifts, take on more hours at work, or seek a higher-paying job—decisions that would translate into critical income.

For women of color, the survey findings suggest that child care access could have an even greater effect on employment and wages. More than half of African American mothers, and 48 percent of Hispanic mothers reported that they would look for a higher-paying job if they had better child care access. (see Table 3) Given that mothers of color are overrepresented in low-wage work and experience a significant wage gap when compared with white men—due to the compounded effects of gender and racial discrimination—these findings highlight how making child care more affordable could support mothers of color to find higher-paying jobs and increase their overall economic security.⁴²