Working Families
Access to affordable, reliable, and high-quality early learning and child care opportunities provides working families with better job stability and overall economic security.
Here are five things to know about child care and working families.
- Child care prices are untenable across all program types, age groups, and geographic locations. In 2021, the cost of infant care ranged from 24.6% to 75.1% of income for single-parent households.
- Child care helps parents return to or stay at work, which can generate an additional $94,000 in lifetime earnings for mothers.
- Almost half of parents are absent from work at least once every six months due to child care issues.
- 74% of mothers and 66% of fathers have left work early, arrived late, or been absent because child care fell through at the last minute.
- In a recent poll, 59% of part-time or non-working parents say they would go back to work full-time if their child had access to quality child care at a reasonable cost.
Learn more:
Posts
Research: High-Quality ECE Strengthens Families and Can Break the Cycle of Poverty
A new analysis from Nobel laureate economist James Heckman finds that targeted, high-quality early childhood investments have the power to lift multiple generations out of poverty. This research demonstrates the …
Strengthening Child Care Tax Incentives to Support Working Families
Child care is not a luxury for American families—it’s a necessity. Yet the costs associated with quality child care are rapidly out-pacing most other expenses faced by families, including the …
FFYF Letter to White House Workforce Policy Advisory Board
In February of 2019, the White House announced the creation of a Workforce Policy Advisory Board, tasked with advising Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Adviser to the President Ivanka Trump on …
One Year after MIECHV Reauthorization, Advocates Look to a Bright Future for Successful Home Visiting Services
Tomorrow, the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program celebrates the first anniversary of its bipartisan reauthorization, which extended the program through Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 at a …
NYT: As Washington Limps Along, Head Start Thrives
Did you see the front page of today’s New York Times? Featured prominently — A1 above the fold — was an article about the undeniable success of the Head Start …
