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
Survey Finds 40% of Parents Have Gone Into Debt Over Child Care Costs
A new survey from The Penny Hoarder has found that 40% of parents have gone into debt over the high costs of child care, making the passage of the Build …
POTUS, VP, and FLOTUS Hit the Road for Child Care and Preschool in the Build Back Better Act
Congress is currently considering the Build Back Better Act, which includes a sweeping reform proposal to significantly and sustainably expand access to quality child care and preschool in America. The …
Families in Rural Communities Face Acute Child Care Challenges
Access to high-quality child care is a challenge for many Americans. In fact, 31.7% of children below the age of six with all parents in the workforce come from families …
Treasury Dept. Report Highlights Market Failures in America’s Child Care System and How Build Back Better Can Help
The Department of Treasury released the Economics of Child Care Supply, a report analyzing America’s existing child care system that demonstrates how the private, market-based system fails to meet the …
New State Data: How Families Use Child Tax Credit Payments
With the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act in March, Congress strengthened and expanded the Child Tax Credit (CTC), making the credit fully refundable and increasing the amount for …
Moody’s Report: “Especially Strong Employment Effects” from Federal Support for Child Care
A new report from Moody’s Analytics — the renowned global financial firm, which provides economic research regarding risk, performance and financial modeling — examined the elements of President Biden’s Build …
With Release of Budget Resolution, Child Care and Preschool Should Remain a Top Priority in Reconciliation Package
UPDATE: On Wednesday, August 11th, the Senate voted to approve the budget resolution, setting the stage for Congressional Democrats to craft a sweeping economic package with significant investments in child …
2021 State Fact Sheets: Examining the Impact and Unmet Need of Federal & State ECE Funding
FFYF has released the latest iteration of its annual state fact sheets, which draw on numerous data sources to offer details about the early childhood opportunities in each state made …
The Expanded CDCTC Would Help More Families Afford Child Care
On Wednesday, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) released a tool designed to help families understand the expanded CDCTC limits that were temporarily expanded for 2021 under the American Rescue Plan …
Primetime Coverage of America’s Child Care Dilemma from PBS NewsHour
Last week, in partnership with the Pritzker Children’s Initiative and the Stein Early Childhood Development Fund, PBS NewsHour aired a week-long the series, “Raising the Future: America’s child care dilemma,” …
SURVEY: Child Care Issues Continue to Put a Strain on Working, Low-Income Families
A new Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) and Morning Consult survey of households with children under the age of five where all caregivers are employed, finds that the child care crisis, …
Our Child Care System Is Not Meeting The Needs Of Families, Providers, or The Economy
Now is the time to build a system of early care and education that works. Finding and affording quality child care and early learning options shouldn’t be the reason parents …
