The last 30 years have shown a substantial increase in labor force participation by women with children. With working mothers making ever greater contributions to household incomes, access to child care has become an essential work support for families.

Women with children are entering the workforce in greater numbers than ever before.

• Currently, 71.3 percent of women with children are in the labor force. ¹
• In 1975, only two out of every five mothers with a child under age 6 held a paid job.² As of 2007, 63.5 percent of women with children under age 6 were in the labor force, and 60 percent of mothers with children under age 3 were in the labor force. ³
• Between 1970 and 1990, the number of single parent families in the United States doubled, contributing to the greater demand for child care.⁴
• More women are going back to work sooner after having a child. In 2007, the labor force participation rate for mothers of children younger than a year old was 51.4 percent.⁵

Child care is a critical support for working families.

• Three out of four working mothers work more than 30 hours per week. ⁶ Over 90 percent of their families use some kind of child care.⁷
• On average, children under age 5 of working mothers spend 36 hours each week in some type of child care arrangement.⁸
• Women's wages are essential to the economic well-being of their families. In 20 to 25 percent of dual-earner families, women are the primary earners.⁹
• For families with children under age 5 with employed mothers and income less than $18,000 a year, the mother's income was 95 percent of household income¹⁰.
• For families with children under age 5 with employed mothers and income between $18,000 and $36,000, the mother's income was 70 percent of household income ¹¹.
• For families with children under age 5 with employed mothers and income between $36,000 and $60,000, the mother's income was more than half of the household income (53 percent)¹².
• Access to child care facilitates welfare recipients' entrance into the workforce, and regular child care arrangements are associated with greater job stability and retention.¹³

¹ U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. Women in the Labor Force: A Databook. September 2008. (http://www.bls.gov/cps/wlf-databook2008.htm).

² Center for Economic and Policy Research. Working Moms and Child Care. May 2004, 4.

³ Women in the Labor Force: A Databook.

⁴ U.S. Census BureauPublic Information Office. Family Composition Begins to Stabilize in the 1990s, Census Bureau Reports. May 28, 1998. (http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/cb98-88.html).

⁵ Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment Characteristics of Families. 2008. (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.toc.htm).

⁶ Working Moms and Child Care.

⁷ Ibid, 2.

⁸ U.S. Census Bureau (2005), Who's Minding the Kids? Child Care Arrangements: Winter 2005.(Current Population Reports, P70-101). http://www.census.gov/prod/2005pubs/p70-101.pdf

⁹ Bureau of Labor Statistics Monthly Labor Review. Earnings of husbands and wives in dual-earner families. April 1998. (http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1998/04/art4full.pdf), 42.

¹⁰ Who's Minding the Kids? Child Care Arrangements: 2008.

¹¹ Ibid.

¹² Ibid.

¹³ Institute for Women's Policy Research. Work Supports, Job Retention, and Job Mobility Among Low-Income Mothers. November 2004. (http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/B247P.pdf), 28.