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Child Care Costs and Women's Employment: A Comparison of Single and Married Mothers With Pre‐School‐Aged Children
Author(s) -
Han Wenjui,
Waldfogel Jane
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/0038-4941.00042
Subject(s) - single mothers , child care , current population survey , psychology , population , medicine , developmental psychology , nursing , environmental health
Objectives . The effects of child care costs on the employment of single and married mothers with pre‐school‐aged children were analyzed. Methods . Both demographic and employment data from the March Current Population Survey were used, supplemented by child care data from various sources. Results . We find that child care costs have strong effects on employment for women with pre‐school‐aged children and that these effects are larger for single mothers than for married mothers. Conclusions . Our simulation results suggest that policies that reduce the costs of child care could raise the employment rate of married mothers by 3 to 14 percentage points and the employment rate of single mothers by 5 to 21 percentage points.