AUBURN, Washington 鈥 After a series of low-paying jobs, Nicole Slemp finally landed one she loved. She was a secretary for Washington鈥檚 child services department, a job that came with her own cubicle, and she had a knack for working with families in difficult situations.
Slemp expected to return to work after having her son in August. But then she and her husband started looking for child care 鈥 and doing the math. The best option would cost about $2,000 a month, with a long wait list, and even the least expensive option around $1,600, still eating up most of Slemp鈥檚 salary. Her husband earns about $35 an hour at a hose distribution company. Between them, they earned too much to qualify for government help.
鈥淚 really didn鈥檛 want to quit my job,鈥 says Slemp, 33, who lives in a Seattle suburb. But, she says, she felt like she had no choice.
The dilemma is common in the United States, where high-quality child care programs are prohibitively expensive, government assistance is limited, and daycare openings are sometimes hard to find at all. In 2022, had a parent who had to quit, turn down or drastically change a job in the previous year because of child care problems. And that burden falls most on mothers, who shoulder more child-rearing responsibilities and are far more likely to .
Even so, women鈥檚 participation in the workforce has , reaching historic highs in December 2023. But that masks a lingering crisis among women like Slemp who lack a college degree: The gap in employment rates between mothers who have a four-year degree and those who don鈥檛 has only grown.
For mothers without college degrees, a day without work is often a day without pay. They are . And when they face an interruption in child care arrangements 鈥 whether their child is at a relative鈥檚 home, a preschool or a daycare center 鈥 an adult in the family is far more likely to take unpaid time off or to be forced to leave a job altogether, according to an analysis of Census survey data by the Education Reporting Collaborative.
Related: Free child care exists in America 鈥 if you cross paths with the right philanthropist
Fixing the Child Care Crisis
This story is the first in a series on how the child care crisis affects working parents 鈥 with a focus on solutions. It was produced by the , a coalition of eight newsrooms that includes AL.com, The Associated Press, The Christian Science Monitor, The Dallas Morning News, 福利姬视频, Idaho Education News, The Post and Courier in South Carolina, and The Seattle Times.
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In interviews, mothers across the country shared how the seemingly endless search for child care, and its expense, left them feeling defeated. It pushed them off career tracks, robbed them of a sense of purpose, and put them in financial distress.
Women like Slemp challenge the image of the stay-at-home mom as an affluent woman with a high-earning partner, said Jessica Calarco, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
鈥淭he stay-at-home moms in this country are disproportionately mothers who鈥檝e been pushed out of the workforce because they don鈥檛 make enough to make it work financially to pay for child care,鈥 Calarco said.
Her own research indicates three-quarters of stay-at-home moms live in households with incomes less than $50,000, and half have household incomes of less than $25,000.
Still, the high cost of child care has upended the careers of even those with college degrees.
When Jane Roberts gave birth in November, she and her husband, both teachers, quickly realized sending baby Dennis to day care was out of the question. It was too costly, and they worried about finding a quality provider in their hometown of Pocatello, Idaho.
The school district has no paid medical or parental leave, so Roberts exhausted her sick leave and personal days to stay home with Dennis. In March, she returned to work and husband Mike took leave. By the end of the school year, they鈥檒l have missed out on a combined nine weeks of pay. To make ends meet, they鈥檝e borrowed money against Jane鈥檚 life insurance policy.
In the fall, Roberts won鈥檛 return to teaching. The decision was wrenching. 鈥淚鈥檝e devoted my entire adult life to this profession,鈥 she said.
For low- and middle-income women who do find child care, the expense can become overwhelming. The Department of Health and Human Services has defined 鈥渁ffordable鈥 child care as an arrangement that costs no more than 7 percent of a household budget. But a Labor Department study found fewer than 50 American counties where a family earning the median household income could obtain child care at an 鈥渁ffordable鈥 price.
There鈥檚 also a connection between the cost of child care and the number of mothers working: a 10 percent increase in the median price of child care was associated with a 1 percent drop in the maternal workforce, the Labor Department found.
Related: Inside Canada鈥檚 50-year fight for national child care
In Birmingham, Alabama, single mother Adriane Burnett takes home about $2,800 a month as a customer service representative for a manufacturing company. She spends more than a third of that on care for her 3-year-old.
In October, that child aged out of a program that qualified the family of three for child care subsidies. So she took on more work, delivering food for DoorDash and Uber Eats. To make the deliveries possible, her 14-year-old has to babysit.
Even so, Burnett had to file for bankruptcy and forfeit her car because she was behind on payments. She is borrowing her father鈥檚 car to continue her delivery gigs. The financial stress and guilt over missing time with her kids have affected her health, Burnett said. She has had panic attacks and has fainted at work.
鈥淢y kids need me,鈥 Burnett said, 鈥渂ut I also have to work.鈥
Even for parents who can afford child care, searching for it 鈥 and paying for it 鈥 consumes reams of time and energy.
When Daizha Rioland was five months pregnant with her first child, she posted in a Facebook group for Dallas moms that she was looking for child care. Several warned she was already behind if she wasn鈥檛 on any wait lists. Rioland, who has a degree and works in communications for a nonprofit, wanted a racially diverse program with a strong curriculum.
While her daughter remained on wait lists, Rioland鈥檚 parents stepped in to care for her. Finally, her daughter reached the top of a waiting list 鈥 at 18 months old. The tuition was so high she could only attend part-time. Rioland got her second daughter on waiting lists long before she was born, and she now attends a center Rioland trusts.
鈥淚鈥檝e grown up in Dallas. I see what happens when you鈥檙e not afforded the luxury of high-quality education,鈥 said Rioland, who is Black. 鈥淔or my daughters, that鈥檚 not going to be the case.鈥
Slemp still sometimes wonders how she ended up staying at home with her son 鈥 time she cherishes but also finds disorienting. She thought she was doing well. After stints at a water park and a call center, her state job seemed like a step toward financial stability. How could it be so hard to maintain her career, when everything seemed to be going right?
鈥淥ur country is doing nothing to try to help fill that gap,鈥 Slemp said. As a parent, 鈥渨e鈥檙e supposed to keep the population going, and they鈥檙e not giving us a chance to provide for our kids to be able to do that.鈥
This story was written by Moriah Balingit and Sharon Lurye of The Associated Press and Daniel Beekman of The Seattle Times. Balingit reported from Washington, D.C., and Lurye from New Orleans. Carly Flandro of Idaho Education News, Valeria Olivares of The Dallas Morning News and Alaina Bookman of AL.com contributed reporting.
Good morning, this reading was very interesting, and informative. I uderstand the situation with childcare services. I am not a parent, however I have a passion for helping parents with their children being a former nanny. In the Urban communities among the minorities there is a problem with childcare. Especially for those that have had children before they graduate high school and trying to elevate themselves and their child/ children. They attend night school and at times there is noone or childcare service offering late hours. It’s a nation wide crisis with affordable service for working parents weather there’s two income house hold or one. This is my observation on the childcare industry