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OCR for page 16
Trends in Work, Famil-y, and Child Care
The experience of growing up in the United States is likely to be
different for children in the late 1980s and the 1990s than it was for
children several decades ago. Although a significant proportion still live
in a traditional two-parent family (including both natural and stepparent
families) in which the father is the wage earner and the mother is the
homemaker, most do not. Since 1970, significant social, demographic,
and economic changes have altered the form and the function of many
American families, with consequent effects on the daily experiences of
children. More children than at any time since the Great Depression live
in families with only one parent, usually their mothers. More children
than ever before live in families in which their mothers, as well as their
fathers, work outside the home. Children are more likely than any other
age group in the United States to be living in poverty, and if they live in
a single-parent family in which the mother is unemployed, they are almost
certain to be poor. Moreover, today more children than ever before spend
time in the care of adults other than their parents.
These dramatic trends have been the subject of popular media atten-
tion and scholarly inquiry, and they have significant implications for child
care issues. Recent shifts in labor force participation particularly among
women with children in family structure, in family income, and in the
settings in which children are cared for and reared are clearly related, but
there is little definitive evidence of causal links (Kamerman and Hayes,
1982~. Undoubtedly, a complex variety of social, economic, cultural, and
ideological factors contributed to these changes in American families, and
they are not easily disentangled. Our purpose in describing these trends
in not to imply direct cause-and-effect relationships, but instead to identify
16
OCR for page 17
TRENDS IN WORK, FAMILY; AND CHILD CARE
< 1 year old
2 years old
3 years old
LL
a:
4 years old
5 years old
6-13 years old
17
. . . ~ ~
.~. ~. ~, ~'
\\\\\\\\\\\\
1
. ~. :.:. ::: .]
6\\\\':\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\51
........... ... . , - ]
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\]
,, ~-. 1
~ 1 978
_,
1983
~ 1 988
0 20 40 60 80 100
PERCENT
FIGURE 2-1 Labor Force Participation Rates of Mothers By Age of Youngest Child,
1978-1988. Source: Data from Bureau of Labor Statistics, News, September 7, 1988.
Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor.
significant associated patterns of change in U.S. society that have created
the current context for child care policy.
IABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION
The past decade and a half have witnessed an unprecedented increase
in the labor force participation of mothers with young children. Between
1970 and 1988 the proportion of women with children under age 6 who
were in the work force rose from 30 to 56 percent. Today approximately
10.5 million children under age 6, including 6.6 million infants and toddlers
under age 3, have working mothers (see Figure 2-1~. In 1987, for the first
time, more than one-half of all mothers with babies 1 year old or younger
(approximately 1.9 million) were working or looking for work (Bureau of
Labor Statistics, 1988~. Women with school-age children are even more
likely to be working or looking for work outside their homes. In 1988, more
OCR for page 18
18
All Children
Not in labor force
In labor force
C Mother not present
WHO CARES FOR AMERICA'S CHILDREN?
Children Under
6 With Married
Mothers
Children Under
6 With Single
Mothers
~....;
~7,
t47.9~
Children Aged Children Aged
6-13 With Married 6-13 With Single
Mothers Mothers
~:64~3~'
64.8 ~
FIGURE 2-2 Children Under Age 13 by Mothem' Labor Force Participation and Mantal
Status, 1988. Source: Unpublished data from Bureau of Labor Statistics, Marital and Family
Characteristics of the Labor Force: March 1988. U.S. Department of Labor, Washington,
D.C.
than 72 percent of those whose youngest child was between the ages of 6
and 13 were in the labor force. Approximately 16 million children, or more
than 60 percent of all children in this age group, had working mothers (see
Figure 2-2), and the numbers are expected to rise in the l990s (Bureau of
Labor Statistics, 1988~.
The most dramatic change in labor force participation has been among
mothers in two-parent families: between 1970 and 1987 this proportion
jumped from 39 percent to 61 percent. Indeed, just since 1980 the labor
force participation rate for married mothers has increased by 13 percentage
points. Although in another era many of these women would have left the
labor force when they married or had children, they are now continuing
to work. Those with school-age children are more likely to be employed
than those with preschool-age children; however, the rate of increase in
labor force participation of women has been greatest among those with
very young children, an astounding 25 percent increase since 1980. Idday,
nearly 55 percent of married mothers with children under age 4 are in the
work force (see Figure 2-3~. Mothers who delay childbearing until after
age 25 and those with 4 or more years of college education are more likely
to be in the labor force than are younger mothers and those with less than
12 years of schooling (Bureau of the Census, 1988a).
OCR for page 19
TRENDS IN WORK, FAMILY ED CH LD Cat
100
90
80
70
60
z
O 50
IL
40
30
20
10
o
Children with single mothers
A -.,
[:.:.:.:.:.:.:1 Children with married mothers
< 1 Year Old 2 Years Old
19
3 Years Old
AGE
FIGURE 2-3 Children Under Age 4 Filth Working Mathers, by Child's Age and Mother's
Mantal Status, 1988. Source: Unpublished data from Bureau of Labor Statistics, Mantal
and Family Characteristics of the Labor Force: March 1988. U.S. Department of Labor,
Washington, D.C.
Although there has been a notable decline in family size generally,
the number of children in a family is closely linked to the extent to which
mothers work. Among families with only one child, about three-quarters
of the mothers in single- and two-parent families were employed in 1987.
By contrast, less than one-half of mothers with four children, regardless of
marital status, and only one-quarter of single mothers with five or more
children were working outside their homes (Bureau of Labor Statistics,
1988~. The causal relationship between family size and mothers' labor
force participation is complex and difficult to sort out.
Historically, low-income and unmarried mothers have had higher la-
bor force participation rates than other women (Grossman, 1978, 1983~.
Because these women constitute a greater proportion of black than white
mothers, black women traditionally have been more likely to be working
or looking for work outside their homes than white women. Although
OCR for page 20
20
WHO CARES FOR ~E~CA'S CHILDREN?
/
the past 15 years have seen a rise In the labor force participation of low-
~ncome and unmarried women, the most dramatic increase has been among
middle~lass married mothers, especially those with young children. As a
result, the proportion of black children and white children under 6 with
working mothers was approximately equal in the late 1980s (see Figure
2-4~. If the current trend continues, the proportion of white children with
working mothers is likely to exceed that of black children by the mid-199Os
(Hofferth and Phillips, 1987~. Among single-parent families, white mothers
are far more likely than black or Hispanic mothers to be in the labor force
and to :be employed. For women who are single parents who are in the
labor force, unemployment is particularly high among black women with
preschool-age children: at 26.8 percent in 1988, their jobless rate was over
twice as high as that of white mothers with preschoolers and more than
three times that of Hispanic mothers with very young children (Bureau of
Labor Statistics, 1988~.
coo
90
70
40
20
10 1
O 1
1975 1 978
i
Black
-
White
Hispanic
1981 1 984
YEAR
1 988
FIGURE 24 Children Under Age 6 With Mothers in the Labor Force, by Race or
Ethnicity, 1975-19~. Source: Unpublished data from Bureau of Labor Statistics, Marital
and Family Characteristics of the Labor Force: March 1975, March 1978, March 1981,
March 1984, and March 1988. U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, D.C
OCR for page 21
TRENDS IN WORK, FAMILY ED CHIN Cat
100
80
~ 60
CO
CC
fL 40
20
o
~ Married
, _
If;
,... ~ ..
:.:-:.:.:-.:.:
:-:-:-:-:-.-:
·:-:-:-:-:-:
:-:-:-:-:-:-:
:.:-:-:-:-:.:
·:-:-:-:-:-
:-:-:-:-:-:
·:-:-:-:-:-:
·:-:-:-:-:
:-.-:.:.:.:-
:-:-:-:-:--
.~ :-
·:-:-:-:-:-:
............
:-:-:-:-.-:
·:-:-:-:-:-:
............
:-:-:-:-:-:
·:-:-:-:-:-:
:-:-:-:-:-:
·:-:-:-:-:-:
............
:-:-:-:-:--
:.:.:.:.:-:
, ......
Under 3 3-5 6-13
AGE (in years)
21
FIGURE 2-5 Full-Time Work of Employed Mothers, lay Mantal Status and Age of Child,
1988. Source: Unpublished data Tom Bureau of Labor Statistics, Mantal and Family
Characteristics of the Labor Force: March 1988. U.S. Department of Labor, Washington,
D.C.
Of the total number of employed mothers with children under age
13 (about 16 million) in 1988, approximately 72 percent worked full time.
A greater proportion of working mothers who are single parents than
of mothers with husbands present were employed full time. In addition,
women with school-age children were somewhat more likely to work full
time than women with preschoolers. As indicated in Figure 2-5, it appears
that marital status rather than the age of the child determines whether a
mother who is employed works full or part time.
Although women's labor force participation in the United States has
increased in almost every decade since 1890, the dramatic increase in the
number of mothers working outside the home during the past decade rep-
resents a fundamental change in the day-to-day life of many American
women. It is attributable in part to the baby-boom generation coming of
age and in part to the dramatic increase during the 1960s and the 1970s in
the proportion of women who chose (or were obliged) to seek paid work
(Kamerman and Hayes, 1982; Reskin and HartInann, 1986~. This change
is undoubtedly linked to broader changing social, cultural, ideological, and
economic conditions in the United States. The economic growth of the
OCR for page 22
22
WHO CARES FOR AMERICA'S CHILDREN?
1960s and the mid-1980s, increases in the number of available jobs, grow-
ing legal pressures to assure women equal access to the workplace, the
resurgence of the feminist movement, and the availability of effective con-
traception have all removed barriers to women entering the job market and
remaining in it. Such factors as the declining income and job opportunities
of young men (especially for those who lack skills) (Wilson, 1987) and the
mechanization of the household are also undoubtedly relevant (O'Neill,
1980~. Regardless of their motivation to go to work, however, mothers'
employment has been accompanied by changes in family structure, and
mothers' earnings have brought about changes in patterns of family income
(Kamerman and Hayes, 1982~.
FAMILY STRUCTURE
Between the Great Depression and 1970, approximately 90 percent of
American children lived in families with both parents present. In 1987 only
about 75 percent of children ages 6 to 17 and 81 percent of children under
age 6 lived in two-parent families. Although the proportion of children
living with neither parent has remained relatively stable throughout the
twentieth century at 3 to 5 percent, the proportion living with only one
parent has increased dramatically since 1970 (Bureau of the Census, 1988b;
see also Figure 2-6~. Most of these children live in families maintained
by mothers; less than 3 percent live only with their fathers. While most
white and Hispanic children live with two parents, more than one-half of
all black children do not. Despite differences in the prevalence of children
living with only one parent, rates of growth in the formation of mother-only
families have been similar for whites, blacks, and Hispanics. During the
1960s and 1970s, the number of children living only with their mothers
rose between 35 and 40 percent per decade for all groups (Garfinkel and
McLanahan, 1986~.
The increasing number of children in single-parent families reflects a
rapidly rising divorce rate among adult mothers and a rising rate of child-
bearing among unmarried women, particularly among adolescents (Hayes,
1987; Kamerman and Hayes, 1982~. Approximately one-half of all mar-
riages in the United States now end in divorce, and approximately 40
percent of all white babies and almost 90 percent of all black babies of
teenage mothers are born to unmarried women. Even when adolescent
marriages occur, they are characterized by instability, and the children of
teenage mothers can be expected to spend a substantial period of their
early life in a single-parent family (Hayes, 1987~. Perhaps the most striking
feature of the growth of mother-only families over the past generation has
been the difference between blacks and whites: for whites, the increase was
OCR for page 23
TRENDS IN WORK, FAMILY; AND CHILD CARE
100
70
90
80
60
of
(A 50
IIJ
40
30
20
-
-
-
-
-
10
O
1971
-
-
Black
Hispanic
1 1 1
White
1 976
23
1 982
YEAR
1 987
FIGURE 2-6 Children Under 18 Living With Only One Parent, by Race or Ethnicity,
1971-1987. Source: Data from Bureau of the Census, Mantal Status and LivingArrangements,
Current Population Reports, Series P-20: 1971, No. 225; 1976, No. 306; 1982, No. 380;
1987, No. 423. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce.
due primarily to marital dissolution; for blacks, the increase was due pri-
marily to unmarried childbearing (Garfinkel and McLanahan, 1986~. The
combined result of these trends is that more than one-half of all white chil-
dren and three-quarters of all black children born in the 1970s and 1980s
are expected to live for some portion of their formative years with only
one of their parents (Bureau of the Census, 1979; Cherlin, 1981; Hofferth,
1985~.
Rising rates of single parenthood, like rising rates of mothers' labor
force participation, are part and parcel of a series of complex social and
economic trends in the United States during the past generation. The
growth of the feminist movement, emerging educational and career oppor-
tunities for women, the rising age of marriage, the declining employment
of young men, and declining standards of living for one-income families
have all undoubtedly contributed. Changes in family structure, coupled
with changes in mothers' employment, have significant implications for the
economic well-being of American families and for the care and rearing of
children.
OCR for page 24
24
WHO CARES FOR AMERICA'S CHILDREN?
FAMILY INCOME
The social and economic environment in which children are reared
substantially influences their health and well-being, as well as their edu-
cation, later employment, and family formation. The economic status of
children usually reflects the economic status of their parents. Those who
live in mother-only families and those who are black or Hispanic dispropor-
tionately live in families whose incomes are below the U.S. median family
income and often below the poverty level.
The period since 1970 has been characterized by erratic changes in
patterns of family income (Levy, 1987~: real median income increased in
the early 1970s, declined in the recessionary period from 1973 to 1975,
and then rose in alternate years during the second half of the decade.
Recession in the 1980-1982 period caused another more significant decline
that has been balanced by growth during the economic recovery of the mid-
1980s. The result of these ups and downs is that median family income for
families with children in the United States- $30,721 in 198~was less than
7 percent higher than the 1970 level after adjusting for inflation (Bureau
of the Census, 1988c).
Throughout the decade of the 1970s, the average annual growth rate
for family income was virtually zero; since 1980, the average annual growth
rate has been only 0.8 percent per year. In companson, the average
annual growth rate was between 3.0 and 3.3 percent during the 1950s and
1960s. Even though more U.S. families have two earners, family income
has remained fairly level. In addition to the slow economic growth of
the past decade and a half, the increase in the number and proportion
of mother-only families exerted a downward influence on overall median
family income, as shown in Figure 2-7 (Bureau of the Census, 1987a).
Significantly, however, although median income stagnated during the 1970s
and increased only modestly during the early and mid-1980s, average family
size also fell, creating a rise in per capita income levels within families.
These income trends have significant implications for the economic
well-being of children. Many economists argue that, on average, U.S.
children were better off in the 1980s than they were in the 1960s, primarily
because of rising family incomes prior to 1973 and the smaller number
of children in most American families (Easterlin, 1987; Haveman et al.,
1988~. A variety of economic measures including children's mean and
median per capita income, financial wealth, fungible wealth, and assets that
yield access to services support this conclusion (Haveman et al., 1988~.
Nevertheless, this economic profile of the average American child does
not capture the growing disparity among families with children. Levels of
income and assets among nonwhite children, though greater than in the
1960s, remain far below those of white children, and especially for minority
OCR for page 25
TRENDS IN WOW, Few LO AND CHILD Cow
$35,000
$32,000
$29,000
$26,000
$23,000
$20,000
$1 7,000
$1 4,000
$20,807
(1 960)
-
/
I .......
.
....... . ~
... ....... ,. - - .
....... ................... ......
.... , , . ~
, ...........
........ .......................
........ . ' ' ' ~
........ .......................
., ~
........ ~
........ .......................
.,., ............
........ .......................
........ . ~
....... ...........
........ ...........
........ ...........
....... ~
........ ...............
....... ..........
.... . ~
·, ...........
....... ...................
... , . ~
---I : 1
$29,647
(1 978)
$29,458
(1 986)
$26,6 1 8
(1 982)
1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985
Shade, recessional periods YEAR
In 1986 dollars
25
FIGURE 2-7 Median Family Income, 1~0-19~. Sour=: Bureau of the Census (1987),
Mono Income of somehow, Famides, and Person in the United States: 1986. Current
Population Remus, Se es P-60, No. 159. Washington D.~: U.S. Department of Rammer=.
chi dren in single-parent fami ies. Overall, the level of economic inequality
as measured by income and assets has increased substantially over the past
generation (Cher in, 1988; Haveman et al., 1988; Minari, 198 ).
Children whose mothers were in the labor force were more economi-
caDy secure in 1987 than chi dren of nonwor ing mothers, regardless of race
or fami y structure. s indicated in Figure 2-8, median income of married-
couple families with children under 13 was $34,267 in 1988; the income of
mother-only families with children under 13 was only $8,305. Although the
overall earnings of white, black, and Hispanic mothers is not substantially
different, levels of median income in two-parent, two-earner families vary
significantly by race and Hispanic origin, largely because the average earn-
ings of white husbands is greater than those of black or Hispanic husbands
(Bureau of the Census, 1988c).
Although their earnings are significantly lower than their husbands'
earnings, working women make a substantial contribution to family income.
Between 1960 and 1986, the average proportion of income earned by the
wife in a two-parent family rose from approximately 20 percent to 30
percent. Although this proportion varied significantly depending on work
experience, occupation, education, and full- or part-time employment, wives
who worked full time all year contributed on average almost 40 percent of
family income in 1986; those who worked part time or who worked full
OCR for page 26
26
WHO CARES FOR AMERICA'S CHILDREN?
$50,000
$40,000
~ $30,000
o
of
$20,000
$1 0,000
O
White
,............
.~:~:~:~:~:
: ..::::
..~.
A.........
...........
........... -
·:-:-:-:-:-:
:--:::::
.............
.............
·:-.-:-:-:-:
: :~.: .: .
Black
Not in labor force
-......
|~ ;A In labor force
· -:-.-:-:-:
.............
..~
·.......
:~:~:~:~:~:~: .
',::::..:
..-..........
.:,..:. ~ . .:
.:.:-.:.:.:-:-
.-.-.-........
.............
......... - -.
·.- -
........
:-:.:.:.:-..:
Hispanic
_ _
iii: .:.:
.~
,:.:..:.
,-.,....
.........
.....................
:: ,::::
.-............
I:-.:
........
......
. ~
.~....
:-:-:-:-:-::::
.-:-:.-:-:.:.:.
·:-:-:-:-:-:
Married Single Married Single Married Single
MOTHERS' MARITAL STATUS
FIGURE 2-8 Median Family Income for Families With Children Under 13, lay Employment
and Mantal Status of Mother, 1988. Source: Unpublished data from Bureau of Labor
Statistics, Mantal and Family Charactenstics of the I~bo,r Force: March 1988. U.S.
Department of Labor, Washington, D.C.
time for 26 weeks or less contributed about 12.5 percent (Bureau of Labor
Statistics, 1987~.
Children in mother-only families in which the mother was working
were better off than those in families in which the mother did not work.
However, they were not on average as well off as children in two-parent
families, regardless of the mother's labor force participation. In mother-
only families in which the mother worked, the median family income in
1986 was less than one-half that of all married-couple families with children.
Moreover, it was less than $4,000 above the poverty level for a nonfarm
family of four ($11,203) (Bureau of the Census, 1987a). Although white
children in mother-only families were marginally better off than black
or Hispanic children in mother-only families, all children in mother-only
families were significantly less economically well off than their peers in
two-parent families.
Children in mother-only families in which the mother was not employed
were generally living below the poverty level. The median income in such
families was only $5,211 in 1988 (Bureau of the Census, 198&~. In 1986
nearly 12.7 million children, more than one of every five children under
18 in the United States, lived in families with an income below the official
poverty level (Bureau of the Census, 1987b). The poverty rate for children,
although lower in 1988 than in 1960, had increased significantly from 1970
to 1988. As might be expected, children in mother-only families were
significantly more likely to be poor than those in two-parent families 59
OCR for page 32
32
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OCR for page 33
TRENDS IN WORK, FAMILY ED CHILD Cam
33
they place their children in organized out-of-home facilities. Mothers
with 4 or more years of college education and those holding managerial
or professional positions appear to prefer organized child care programs
to more informal arrangements in their own home or in another home.
Mothers with less than a high school education and those in service jobs
are much less likely to choose organized child care facilities. In part this
reflects the fact that women in service positions are more likely to work
evening or night shifts and therefore may be more able to rely on husbands
or other relatives as caretakers. In addition, the lower annual earnings of
women in service positions may affect their ability to pay for organized
child care services (Bureau of the Census, 1987c).
Parents' use of child care arrangements often becomes more extensive
and complicated when there is more than one child in the family. Sup-
plementing school and preschool programs with one or more other forms
of organized or informal child care services appears to be commonplace
in many families. Included among these arrangements may be in-home
care by a relative or a nonrelative; out-of-home care by relatives, friends,
neighbors, or other paid caretakers; and special arrangements when a usual
routine is disrupted. Children under compulsory school age are especially
likely to experience multiple forms of care by multiple caretakers during
the course of a normal week if their parents are employed. A recent sur-
vey of child care use in three cities showed that approximately one-quarter
of preschool-age children are cared for in more than one arrangement.
For the large majority, secondary arrangements are care by relatives or
informal arrangements with friends, neighbors, or other nonrelatives. Sec-
onda~y arrangements are more likely than primary child care arrangements
to be located in the child's own home. However, children whose primary
arrangement is care by relatives are less likely to have a secondary arrange-
ment (Kisker et al., 1988~. Although little is known about the variations in
"packaging of care arrangements" for families in different social and eco-
nomic circumstances, it appears to be becoming more prevalent in many
families (Kamerman and Hayes, 1982~.
The extent to which parents' use of different types of child care
arrangements reflects their preferences or their range of options is difficult
to determine. Surveys that have questioned parents about their satisfaction
with current arrangements show that the majority are satisfied and do not
desire a change (Kisker et al., 1988; Wavers et al., 1982~. Parents indicate
that convenience, location, and cost are primary determinants of these
selections. However, expressed preferences for center-based care seem to
be increasing among mothers of children at all ages. The shift appears to be
related, at least in part, to parents' desire to encourage and enhance their
children's learning experiences. Available evidence suggests that mothers
who prefer center care base their preference on the belief that children
OCR for page 34
34
WHO CARES FOR AMERICA'S CHILDREN?
learn more in more educational settings (Atkinson, 1987; Kisker et al.,
1988~.
In contrast to the general population, recipients of Aid to Families with
Dependent Children (AFD C) express stronger preferences for family day
care (by nonrelatives) than child care centers. In one recent study, in-home
care by a nonrelative was rated most satisfactory by low-income mothers
receiving AFDC, even though they perceived their children to be less happy
in family day care than in center care (Sonenstein and Wolf, 1988~. The
reasons underlying these stated preferences are not clearly understood. As
we discuss in Chapter 8, however, there is some evidence to suggest that
supply constraints, which exist for everyone, are particularly strong for many
low-income families: the cost of center care limits its accessibility. Poor
single parents are even more constrained in their choices. They frequently
face not only the high (to them) cost of center care but the unavailability of
a spouse with whom to share child care responsibilities. Furthermore, the
option for low-income parents to rely on other relatives has also diminished
as grandmothers, aunts, and extended family members have increased their
own labor force participation in recent years (Kisker et al., 1988; Sonenstein
and Wolf, 1988~.
IMPLICATIONS OF CHILD CARE: FOR
WOMEN'S EMPLOYMENT AND FERTILITY
Changing patterns of women's employment and family structure have
profoundly influenced the use of supplemental child care services in the
United States. At the same time, the availability and affordability of child
care services appear to have significant effects on mothers' decisions to
enter, reenter, or remain in the labor force, with consequent effects on
decisions concerning fertility. A growing body of research shows that the
ease with which women can arrange for the care of their children, their
satisfaction with the arrangement, the amount they must pay, as well as
their wages and job satisfaction affect a calculation of their gains from
employment (Leibowitz and Waite, 1988; Sonenstein and Wolf, 1988~.
An important factor affecting a mother's decision to work is the amount
she must pay for child care relative to what she can earn. For many
employed mothers, the cost of child care is a major household budget item.
In 1985, the national median weekly child care expenditure was $38 per
child per week overall, and it was $42 per week for preschool-age children
(Bureau of the Census, 1987c). However, the amount families pay for child
care varies dramatically by the type of care they choose and the geographic
area in which they live.
The lack of child care clearly keeps some women from working at
all and inhibits their ability to pursue education or job training. Poorly
OCR for page 35
TRENDS IN WORK, FAMILY ED CHILD Cam
35
educated women with little work experience earn low wages, and unless
they can find subsidized, affordable, or free child care, employment may
not make economic sense to them. Some analysts have argued that this
constraint explains why employment rates among high school dropouts and
young unmarried mothers have actually declined over the past decade while
employment rates for better educated women have jumped (O'Connell and
Bloom, 1987; Sonenstein and Wolf, 1988~. If true, this phenomenon has
both short- and long-term consequences: women who remain out of the
labor force fail to develop job skills through work experience and on-the-
job training. They thus forgo the growth in earnings that accompanies
experience, and over time, their training and skills depreciate from lack of
use (Mincer and Ofek, 1982~.
Child care is not only a constraint on entry into employment for low-
~ncome women, it can also constrain sustained employment. In order for
a mother, especially a single parent, to maintain consistent labor force
participation, her child care arrangements must be dependable. In a 1985
Current Population Survey sample, 6 percent of employed mothers reported
that they had lost time from work in the past month because of the failure
of child care arrangements. Over a year's time, the proportion of women
reporting lost time would be substantially higher (Bureau of the Census,
1987c; Sonenstein and Wolf, 1988~.
Among mothers who have some discretion about when and how much
they work outside the home, the availability and affordability of "ade-
quate child care" also affect decisions to seek employment. A mother's
labor force participation necessarily reduces her time and energy for home
production activities, including child care, transportation, housework, and
shopping. Earnings may be used to replace these functions. Lazaer and
Michael (1980) estimated that because of lost home production and the
expenses directly related to employment, two-parent families with an em-
ployed mother require 25 to 30 percent more income to maintain the same
standard of living as a comparable family in which the mother works only
at home. Child care is the most essential home production activity, and it
is most expensive and time-consuming when children are very young. As
children get older, they require less parental time, thus shifting the costs
and benefits of mothers' employment (Oppenheimer, 1974~. The clear
implication is that in families in which a mother's income is not essential
to basic subsistence, her decision concerning whether to work outside the
home will be significantly influenced by the net economic gain from her
earnings. Because many women work in occupations that pay relatively
low wages (Reskin and Hartmann, 1986), the incentive to work will depend
heavily on their husbands' income. The more their husbands earn, the less
likely that women with young children will enter, reenter, or remain in
OCR for page 36
36
WHO CARES FOR AMERICA'S CHILDREN?
the labor force unless they can find "adequate child care at an acceptable
price" (Leibowitz and Waite, 1988).
That the availability and affordability of child care pose constraints on
women's employment is supported in national survey data and a variety of
smaller studies. In 1982, 26 percent of mothers of preschool children who
were not in the labor force reported that they would be looking for work if
they could find satisfactory child care, and 16 percent of employed mothers
reported that they were constrained in their work hours by the availability of
satisfactory child care. Substantially more unmarried mothers (45 percent)
than married mothers (22 percent) indicated that they would work if child
care were available at a reasonable cost. Women with family incomes over
$25,000 were least likely to express such intentions (O'Connell and Rogers,
19834. More recent data from the youth cohort of the National Longitudinal
Survey of Labor Market Experience, which oversamples low-income and
minority women, confirms findings from the Current Population Survey
(Leibowitz and Waite, 1988~. Similarly, a recent GAO study of AFDC
recipients found that 60 percent of the respondents reported that a lack
of child care prevented them from participating in current work programs,
although only 17 percent said it was a very significant barrier (U.S. General
Accounting Office, 1987~. Confirmatory evidence also comes from several
smaller studies that indicate that some women with low earnings find
employment profitable only because they have access to free or very low-
cost care from relatives (Leibowitz et al., 1988) and that the cost and
availability of child care services constrain the number of hours they work
(Mason, 1987~.
Women who find it difficult or costly to combine work and motherhood
may have to choose between them in some sense. Traditionally, most
women who chose motherhood stayed out of the labor force when they
had young children. More recently, a significant and rapidly growing
proportion of women are continuing to work after marriage and after
giving birth. Employed women have historically had smaller families than
women who work only in the home. Scholars have debated whether low
fertility permits employment or whether employment leads to low fertility.
Research suggests that, in the long term, women tailor their childbearing
to their work and career goals, but in the short run the demands of a new
baby reduce labor supply (Cramer, 1980; Hout, 1978; Leibowitz et al., 1988;
Waite and Stolzenberg, 1976~.
Both fertility and expected family size decrease with increasing com-
mitment to the labor force. Among women aged 18 to 34, the fertility
rate for those who were employed in 1987 was 890 per 1,000 women,
compared with 1,673 per 1,000 for those who were not in the labor force.
Similarly, the lifetime birth expectation for working women was 1,967 per
1,000 women, compared with 2,320 per 1,000 for women who were not in
OCR for page 37
TRENDS IN WORK, FAMILY ED CHILD Cam
37
the labor force. Even more striking is the difference in the proportion of
women who expect to remain childless: 11.3 percent of employed women
and 5.7 percent of women who were not in the labor force (Bureau of the
Census, 1988b). Presser and Baldwin (1980) found that women with chil-
dren under age 5 who reported that they were constrained in work by child
care were generally more likely to expect to have no more children than
were women of comparable employment status who reported no child care
constraints. This finding suggests that some women who feel constrained in
their employment choices by lack of child care (or lack of affordable child
care) resolve this dilemma by having fewer children (Leibowitz and Waite,
1988~. Other research supports this contention, but the effects appear to
be quite modest (Blau and Robins, 1986; Mason, 1987~. To the extent that
child care costs and availability affect the timing of childbearing or women's
completed family size, these constraints could affect later economic well-
being as well. Hofferth (1984), for example, found that women who waited
until at least age 30 to begin having children and those with smaller families
were better off at retirement age than those who had a first birth earlier
and those with relatively large families.
Families in which the mother is employed benefit directly from her
earnings. The income she generates contributes directly to her own support
and that of her family. As discussed above, that income is essential to ba-
sic subsistence and economic independence in many mother-only families.
In two-parent families it may be used to provide enrichment for children
through enhanced educational opportunities. In addition, mothers' em-
ployment often improves families' access to health care, if health insurance
benefits are provided or subsidized by the employer (Leibowitz and Waite,
1988~. Moreover, women themselves gain in long-term earning power from
continuous employment while their children are young. Work experience,
together with job tenure, is an important determinant of current earnings.
Mothers who enter the work force or remain employed after childbearing
increase their current income, and they enhance their opportunities to earn
more in the future. 1b the extent that child care poses a constraint on
women's employment, it decreases their long-term earnings potential and
may, in the short term, threaten the economic well-being of their families.
FUTURE TRENDS
The dramatic demographic and economic trends of the 1970s and the
1980s seem likely to continue into the 1990s. Although specific patterns
and rates of change in mothers' labor force participation, children growing
up in single-parent families, and children who will require care outside
their own homes are dependent on a variety of factors, there is general
OCR for page 38
38
WHO CARES FOR AMERICA'S CHILDREN?
100
90
80
70
z 60
G
llJ
CL
50
40
30
10 _
O 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 it_
1 970
_ _-
Children 6-17 ye
A
Children O-s years
~ ~
fat-
-
1 980
~Projected
YEAR
1 990
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2000
FIGURE 2-11 Children With Mothers in the Labor Force, 1970-2000. Source: Projections
prepared by Kristin Moore, Child [lends, Inc. Data from House Select Committee on
Children, Youth, and Families, U.S. Children and Their Families: Current Conditions and
Recent Trends (1989), based on data from Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population
Survey, March 1988.
100
90
80
70
As 60
IL
O 50
LL
CL
40
30
Two-parent households
-
Mother-only households
20 Households with neither parent _
fir
10 ~ ~I Father-only households
to
1 960
1970 1 980
YEAR
1 990 2000
FIGURE 2-12 Composition of Households With Children Under 18, 1960-2000. Source:
Projections prepared by Kristin Moore, Child fiends, Inc. Data from House Select
Committee on Children, Youth, and Families (1989), US. Children and Their Families:
Current Conditions and Recent Trends, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current
Population Survey, March 1988.
OCR for page 39
TRENDS IN WORK, FAMILY; AND CHILD CARE
39
agreement that the trends of the past decade and a half will not be reversed
in the near future.
Straight-line projections of the proportion of children with mothers in
the labor force suggest that by 2000 approximately 80 percent of school-age
children and 70 percent of preschool-age children will have mothers who
are working or looking for work outside their homes (see Figure 2-11~.
Demographers also- project that if current patterns continue, one-third of
all U.S. children will live in single-parent families by 2000 (see Figure
2-12~. Among minority children, the proportions are likely to be consider-
ably larger. One can predict with some certainty that many of these children
will require care from adults other than their parents. The growing propor-
tion of children living with only one parent, usually their mothers, coupled
with the rising labor force participation of extended family members who
were once available to provide child care, suggests that the demand for
out-of-home child care services will continue to increase well into the 1990s.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
labor force
