The data from these three series combined provide an estimate of the number of workers who worked part-time or missed work due to childcare problems. Between 1.2 and 1.5 million workers are affected by inadequate childcare options each month (see Chart 4). Women make up almost 90% of these workers.
That translates to between nine and 26 million hours of potential work lost due to childcare problems in any given week. The losses per year are even more staggering, ranging between 468 million to 1.4 billion hours.[2]
These lost hours result in lower pay for workers, stressing family budgets. Losing six hours per week results in a sizable loss, between $4,680 and $9,026 per year for individual workers.[3] Even losing only one hour each week results in an annual loss of between $780 and $1,504. That severely strains households that have spent down savings and are still facing elevated price levels.
There are clear spillover effects on children. Lower earnings for low-income households result in financial instability and even hunger.[4] Educational disparities widen; many children never catch up.[5] Unstable childcare arrangements exacerbate these outcomes, harming children’s development and creating another hurdle to social mobility.[6]
The lost work hours negatively affect businesses. They lose the productivity and output from workers who are absent. There are additional losses, as coworkers must pick up the slack.
This leads to burnout. The blow to productivity and output compound over time, harming competitiveness. Together, they negatively affect the potential growth of the US economy.
There are seasonal trends in the data. The numbers increase during the end-of-year holidays and the beginning of the year when school is in full swing and illnesses are more rampant. The numbers fall during the summer when women’s employment usually declines. Still, the trend post-pandemic is markedly worse than it was pre-pandemic.
