Spotlight on: Child Care-Related Work Disruption in the Early Childhood Poverty Tracker
This Early Child Hood Poverty Tracker report provides key insights about childcare in New York City from 2021 to 2023. It 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 young children, regardless of their income. 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. The report also finds that mothers whose work had been disrupted by child care issues fared worse economically in the following year.
Key Findings
In 2022, nearly half of all working mothers faced disruption to their work life caused by child care issues.
At that time, close to a third of mothers in the labor force reported
Losing or changing jobs;
Choosing part-time work or declining promotion;
Not looking for a job because of child care issues, such as problems accessing or affording reliable child care.
A year later, mothers whose work was disrupted by child care issues were less likely to be employed, less likely to work full-time, and less likely to work steadily.
Families in which the mother faced child care-related work disruptions were 1.5 times more likely than other families to experience material hardships a year later.
Child care-related work disruptions were more common in lower-income families, with just over half of mothers living below twice the poverty line reporting these challenges.
Suggested Citation:
Cha, Eunho, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Kathryn Neckerman, and Jane Waldfogel. 2024. Spotlight on: Child care-related work disruption in the Early Childhood Poverty Tracker. New York City: Robin Hood.
The Poverty Tracker is a longitudinal study of the dynamics of poverty and disadvantage in New York City. It is a joint project of Robin Hood and Columbia University.