“Voters are showing up and voting for child care when they can,” Hedgepeth said. poll on election night According to the National Women’s Law Center, a nonprofit organization that advocates for women’s rights, 77% of voters said that providing access to child care is important to them.
“We can further say that elected officials need to think about child care as a priority,” she said.
The Labor Department estimates that more than 13 million of the nation’s roughly 63 million parents rely on paid child care providers nationwide. Costs are higher for families with infants, those living in larger counties, and those using a center rather than a home.
Care work has historically been undervalued, Livingston said, and it disproportionately affects women. Her team found that a 10% increase in childcare costs was associated with a 1% decrease in female labor force participation.
“There may come a time when people have to decide: Does it really make sense for me to keep my job and pay so much for childcare, or should I stay at home?” he said.
Hedgepeth said researchers found costs continued to rise in 2023, albeit at a slower pace than inflation.
“There are very good reasons to invest in childcare, so it’s not a race to the bottom,” Hedgepeth said.
Indeed, the Labor Department report said that an influx of $24 billion in federal pandemic aid to child care providers, plus another $14 billion to help states deal with the problem, prevented further increases in spending.
Hedgepeth added: “There’s more to it than understanding that childcare is a resource-intensive thing, and we need to find those, because right now parents are bearing the brunt of the burden.”