Lack of Child Care Services Impacts Women’s Labor Participation
The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Policy held a hearing on Tuesday to discuss child care policy tools to combat bottlenecking and inflation, and why labor force participation for women in the United States is so low compared with other developed countries.
“We are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars that we are leaving on the table because we are not utilizing our workers to their maximum,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., during the hearing.
According to Warren, U.S. labor force participation in women is lower than it was two decades ago, in part because of an inability to access child care services, with many areas of the country existing in child care deserts.
Telling a personal story, Warren said she was forced to nearly quit school and her first full-time big job because she was unable to find child care, until she received support from a close aunt.
“It’s so critical we invest in affordable high-quality care for every child, with child care to unlock workforce capacity,” said Warren.
Estimates presented during the hearing indicate that the U.S. is missing out on 5.2 million workers compared with other countries that provide child care assistance, and many of the women who need child care are below the age of 25.
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