September 2024
Spotlight on: Child Care-Related Work Disruption in the Early Childhood Poverty Tracker
The lack of reliable, affordable child care presents economic setbacks for working mothers of infants and toddlers
Contributors: Eunho Cha, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Kathryn Neckerman, and Jane Waldfogel
Issues Areas: Early Childhood, Education, Households With Children
In this report, data from the Early Childhood Poverty Tracker provides key insights about childcare in NYC over a seven-year span, from 2017 to 2023.
The report finds that while substantial gains have been made for 3-and 4-year-olds as a result of Pre-K and 3-K For All, the city’s child care landscape is not adequately serving mothers of children under three, regardless of their income. There are too few slots, and those that remain available are too often unaffordable; as a result, mothers are facing economic setbacks, forced to disrupt their work schedules or forgo the labor market entirely to fill in child care gaps.
Explore key takeaways below:
49
%
of all working mothers faced disruption to their work life caused by child care issues, in 2022.
30
%
of mothers both below and above the poverty line decided not to look for a job due to child care issues.
The report also finds that mothers whose work had been disrupted by child care issues fared worse economically in the following year. For example, in the Early Childhood Poverty Tracker sample, mothers who suffered a workforce disruption in 2022, were 10 percentage points less likely to be employed a year later than those who had not experienced disruptions (81% vs 91%), and 13 percentage points less likely to work full-time (50% vs 63%).
Since 2022, Robin Hood has invested more than $23 million to expand access to high-quality, affordable, and accessible child care across New York City. Our grantmaking and our Child Care Quality and Innovation Initiative (CCQII) are focused on making New York City an early learning metropolis by strengthening the city’s child care infrastructure, including policies that impact children and their families, and improving direct services for mothers, infants, toddlers, and caregivers.