Child Care in the USA as of 2010 (click title to entry - thank you)

Frequently low paid workers have exorbitant child care costs which could be their entire paycheck. So, unless there are fantastic benefits, child care is a disincentive to work and provides no relief from poverty.

Who's Minding the Kids? Child Care Arrangements: Spring 2010 – Detailed Tables (click title to entry - thank you)

Table 6 is about families. It divides the cost study by age of the child. In all these tables if the mother has dropped out of the work force and have no independent income they don't show up on these tables. So, families experiencing prohibitive child care costs to facilitate work don't even show up here.

Table 6. Average Weekly Child Care Expenditures of Families with Employed Mothers that Make Payments, by Age Groups and Selected Characteristics: Spring 2010 (click here)


In this table, for children under six years old, the over all expenditure for child care as of 2010 was 22.1% of the mother's income.


Depending on marital status of this group it can be 24.9%.


Depending on race of this children age group it can be as much as 25.7% of a mother's salary.


Depending on the education level of the mother it can be as much as 36.3% of the mother's salary.


Depending on the age of the mother it can be as much as 24.8% of her income.


Depending on the employment status of the mother it can be as much as 43% for self-employed women.


Depending on the monthly income of the mother it can cost as much as 54.6% of her monthly income.


If the family is poverty level the child care costs for under 5 years old is as much as 60.9% of her monthly income.


These are survival statistics. Women that have to work and have to support their families, like I used to do, pay considerable amounts for child care for their children. There were times when I had to pay as much as 50% of my after tax dollars for childcare with the rest being divided between food, medical, housing, clothing and toys. Toys were always on the  shopping list. They were going to have what their peers had and they weren't going to be deprived. I believe those values can be transmitted across the spectrum of women. Unfortunately, those values are sometimes truncated by poverty. I might add, paying up to 50% of a mother's income for child care prohibits upward movement and the ability to entertain home ownership.


These statistics impact THE WEALTH mothers can accumulate. It is a life long burden and retirement often depends on a good SSI monthly income if the mother was lucky enough to have an excellent paying job. It impacts the children when they go to college and there are few investments to pay for college and the student has to rely on loans and scholarships. 


Having to pay for child care in high levels of percentages of income have an extremely profound impact on the lives of mothers and their children for their lifetime.