Child care costs and women's employment: A comparison of single and married mothers with pre-school-aged children

Objectives. The effects of child care costs on the employment of single and married mothers with pre-school-aged children were analyzed. Methods. Both demographic and employment data from the March Current Population Survey w ere used, supplemented by child care data from various sources. Results. We find that child care costs have strong effects on employment for women wit h pre-school-aged children and that these effects are larger for single mot hers than for married mothers. Conclusions. Our simulation results suggest that policies that reduce the costs of child care could raise the employmen t rate of married mothers by 3 to 14 percentage points and the employment r ate of single mothers by 5 to 21 percentage points.