Child care costs and women's employment: A comparison of single and married mothers with pre-school-aged children

Wenjui Han, Jane Waldfogel

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)552-568
Number of pages17
JournalSocial Science Quarterly
Volume82
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2001

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Social Sciences

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