How Employment Constraints Affect Low-Income Working Parents’ Child Care Decisions

“In this brief, [the authors] drew from a larger study on child care choices to describe how low-income parents’ employment experiences shaped their child care decisions...After [they] described the research methods and sample in the two study sites, [the authors] presented summary findings regarding the employment contexts of participating parents and the challenges that their employment posed for making child care choices. Then, [they] explored some potential policy implications. By identifying how work constraints interact with the complexities of child care, [they] provided a basis that can help researchers and policymakers identify policy changes that may improve the child care choices available to low-income working families” (p.1). (Abstractor: Author)

• “Limited child care options coupled with the challenges of balancing care and work over time often resulted in frayed and unstable work and care arrangements” (p.7). • “Most low-income working families are not able to access quality early care and education opportunities …while the availability and affordability of care options also significantly constrained parents’ options, for many parents, work schedules and workplace inflexibility further limited their options and prevented them from accessing some available options” (p.7). • The report suggests “expand[ing] the supply of publicly funded early childhood care and education programs in low-income communities, and mak[ing] these option consistent with parents’ employment contexts.” Other recommendations include providing families a minimum number of paid sick days that employed parents can use to care for their own or dependent family members’ illness or emergency care needs and establishing employee-financed paid family leave programs. (p.7-8) (Author and Website Staff)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2012
• Author(s): Chaudry, Ajay; Pedroza, Juan; Sandstrom, Heather
• Organizational Author(s): Urban Institute
• Funding Source: Funding source not identified
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies