WUNRN
Without a paid-leave buffer, women with children rack up big losses in income of between $49,000 and $230,000. On top of that, child care costs often consume half of paychecks.
(WOMENSENEWS)--"It
takes a village to raise a child." If that African proverb were adapted to
modern American family life, the phrase "and about $250,000" should
be added. That's the amount of money the average parents will spend to raise a
child until her or his 18th birthday--excluding the cost of college--according to 2013 data from the U.S Department of
Agriculture.
What these
numbers don't indicate is the cost to women in particular of having children.
A year
after giving birth, women without paid leave lost 86 percent of their pre-birth
earnings, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research study. The numbers only grow over a woman's
lifetime: highly skilled women lose over $230,000 in lifetime wages, while
women with less education (who tend to work in lower paying jobs) lose $49,000.
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Men,
meanwhile, actually earn 6 percent more after having children, according to a recent
study.
The
time-off statistics suggest the extent to which parenthood exacts a higher
price on women. Seventy percent of women reported taking time off from work
because of their kids, compared to 30 percent of men, a 2013
Many women
struggle financially after having a child because their employers don't offer
paid sick or maternity leave, which would allow women with children to keep
earning money at several key junctures when they would otherwise go without pay
or leave their jobs, such as after the birth of each child and during
children's sickness.
Without
the paid-leave buffer to protect their earnings and job security women with
children burn out and some look at the high costs of child care and decide it's
too much.
"The need for child care affects women by reducing their earnings and
their career paths--mothers don't have as many promotions," said Jennifer
Hunter, a professor of family financial management at the
Low-Income Women Crushed
If women
who make a decent living are struggling to find low-cost, quality child care
services, low-income women are being crushed.
Although
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends 10 percent of family income for child care as a
"benchmark" for affordable care, the average family earning less than
$1,500 in monthly income spent almost 50 percent on child care, according to
2010 data from the Center for American Progress. High-income families with
children under the age of 5 who make more than $4,500 per month spent an
average of 8.6 percent of their income on child care. In 2011, the average
working woman spent $143 a week (or $7,436 a year) on child care, compared to
$84 (or $1,008 per year) in 1985, according to inflation-adjusted data from the
Census Bureau.
And
without a single paid sick day, many mothers struggle to find employment and
child care arrangements that work for their families.
One-third
of all low-income mothers who were unemployed tied that situation to child care
problems, compared with only 18 percent of higher income mothers who remain at
home, finds a study done with participants in
In states
such as Georgia and Oklahoma, preschool and other early child care programs are
largely subsidized, and there has been a push from New York Mayor Bill de
Blasio to create funding for free universal pre-K in the city to help working
families. Although there is financial assistance for child care costs in over
20 states, only 1-in-7 eligible families will actually receive such help,
according to the Center for American Progress. Middle class women often earn
too much for such programs, yet still find themselves struggling to afford
quality day care or babysitters.
"The labor-intensiveness of child care is why it's so expensive,"
said Sarah Jane Glynn, associate director of the Women's Economic Policy
program at the Center for American Progress. "But the truth is that we
don't invest enough in child care. We need to look at children as a social
investment--our best social investment."
Cheaper to Stay Home
For some
women such as Milagro Bikofsky it's more affordable to stay home than to work
and pay for child care.
In a sad
irony, Bikofsky, who lives in
"If
money hadn't been an issue, I would still be working," Bikofsky admits.
After having her first child, Bikofsky paid a babysitter to take care of her
daughter while she worked four days a week because it was important to her
husband that their child was raised in their home, even though having a
babysitter cost more than daycare. But after giving birth to her son, Bikofsky
realized she was spending the same money she earned toward child care costs,
especially since care for newborns costs more than for older children. And
having to balance work and two babies--as many moms know--was a struggle.
"When
you don't have kids you don't have to worry about getting home on time,"
she said "It's like there are two different experiences for working women,
and the change begins once you have kids."
Bikofsky
hopes to start working again next year, but part time so she and her husband
won't have to pay as much for daycare.
Bikofsky
is one of a growing trend of women who stay at home--29 percent of moms did not
work outside their homes in 2012, compared to 23 percent of moms in 1999,
according to the
Census
data indicate that the average 25-year-old woman has worked just over seven
years, six months less than the average man. But by age 40, women have worked
three years less than their male counterparts.
After a decade in the workforce, women with a gap of at least six months
earned 18 percent less than those without gaps. Women who took time off earned
36 percent less than men after a decade in the workforce, while women who worked
continuously faced a 19 percent wage gap.
Negative Stereotypes Persist
It's not
just a lack of family-friendly policies that leave mothers with fewer earnings.
Negative stereotypes also keep women from regaining their financial footing
after pregnancy.
"Some
employers hold onto an outdated stereotype--that for many women was never true
in the first place--that women will leave the labor force once they have
children," said Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, executive director and co-founder
of MomsRising, an organization and media outlet based in
Women who
stay in the workforce are also likely to rely on a patchwork of child care
arrangements and schedules.
More than
11 million children under the age of 5 are cared for by someone other than
their mother, which can range from formal day care programs to relatives. Of
the nation's full-time working moms, three-quarters say they use family care
for their children or alternate work schedules with a partner at least part of
the time, according to Census data published in a child care fact sheet by the
Center for American Progress.
Without a
single paid sick day, many mothers take extreme measures to hold their jobs and
child care arrangements together.
For five
years, Jessica Erfer, a congressional analyst in
"The
lack of affordable child care services places a disproportionate burden on
working women," Erfer said. "Many women can't afford to take off so
much time from work."
She and
her husband, who both work for the federal government, applied for 15 daycare
waitlists because it usually takes one year to make it to the top of the list
in D.C.
To care
for their son in the meantime, they hired a nanny with great references. But
when their baby started losing weight, they realized something was wrong. After
installing a nanny cam, they realized the nanny had stopped feeding their baby,
and that she would take him outside for hours without food. On top of that, he
began developing diaper rash because the nanny wasn't changing his diaper. Once
the couple fired the nanny, Erfer had to take additional time off of work.
The
couple's daycare costs range from $1,500 to $2,600 a month; a sizeable chunk of
the household income. Their "amazing" current nanny costs 40 percent
of her and her husband's take-home pay.
"We're upper middle class and we're struggling," Erfer said. "Almost half of my salary should not be going to child care."
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