A new national poll has found that women are delaying having children because of the high cost of child care and preschool–which can run about $10,000 annually (more than my college tuition not that long ago).
For middle income women ($35-50K), the poll found that one in three said that the cost of child care or preschool made them decide against having a baby or delay having one. Those polled often had to give up buying appliances or other household needs because of the high cost of child care.
Some of the women polled are married and part of dual income households. I can’t help but think then of the burden of child care costs on the women served by The Women’s Foundation, who are primarily single mothers earning less than $35K a year in an economy with a very high cost of living.
i wonder what choices and decisions then face a woman with less earning power, less help and a greater financial burden to assume alone.
Here in Washington, D.C., according to our Portrait Project, 2002 market rates for childcare for a family with an infant and a preschooler was around $22,900 per year–or one third of the salary of a couple earning $77,000.
Now, imagine paying my college tuition four times over each year as a single woman earning less than $35,000 per year–which is what a lot of women in our region are trying to do (as I recall, doing it once over for my single mom wasn’t exactly a cake walk). For a single woman in our region earning $26K per year (not atypical), childcare would consume 70 percent of her earnings.
Forget not buying an allowance at that point. What about food, and clothing?
And it’s not just D.C. Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties have the highest estimated childcare costs of all counties in Maryland, at $15,329 and $11,495 respectively for families with an infant and preschooler.
If you’re earning less than $35K, or even less than $50 or $75, and raising kids, that doesn’t leave a lot of budgetary wiggle room.
As Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham said regarding the poll, “The high cost of child care and preschool are causing women to make agonizing decisions. We need to invest more to ensure access to quality child care and preschool for all American families and cut crime in the process.”
Cutting crime isn’t the only thing that would be reduced were child care to be made more affordable and available in our area–and the nation. Without childcare, people–and particularly single mothers–can’t hold down their jobs.
Our Portrait Project found that there is an estimated 62 percent shortfall in the supply of regulated childcare to meet the potential demand in Washington, D.C.
Affordable child care is such a win-win on so many fronts. It may seem like a women’s issue, but really, it’s everyone’s issue, because it touches every facet of our lives, at pretty much every level of the economic spectrum.
This is why it’s one of the four focal points of Stepping Stones. Because women’s economic security, and the strength of our community, depends on access to such key basic services and needs.
