In 1988, more than one-half of all
mothers with children under age 1 were in the paid labor
force, up from 31 percent in 1976. Between 1960 and 1989,
the labor force participation rate of married women with
children under age 6 rose from 19 percent to 58 percent,
while the rate for mothers with children aged 6–17
rose from 39 percent to 73 percent. About 70 percent of
employed mothers, and more than 66 percent of mothers of
preschool-age children, worked full-time in 1985.
The availability of child care
assistance and flexible work options to working mothers
is related to occupation, income level, educational
level, labor force status, and industry, according to the
National Child Care Survey.
The most common child care or
flexible work option was part–time work (41
percent). Nearly 30 percent of surveyed mothers could
choose to take unpaid leave, and slightly more than 20
percent could choose flextime.
Women in professional occupations
were most likely to be offered at least one child care
benefit, while women in service, production, and
agricultural occupations were least likely to receive
child care benefits. Full-time employees were more likely
to have access to unpaid leave than women working
20–34 hours or those working fewer than 20 hours.
Utilization of on-site child care
was greatest among dual earner families, workers in
service producing industries, and workers in service,
production, professional, and managerial occupations.
Dual earner families, families with higher educational
attainment, and higher income workers were most likely to
use pretax spending accounts.
There are several possible
approaches to overcoming some of the differences among
employees in the distribution of child care assistance.
Options include providing employers with tax incentives
for only those benefits targeted at lower income workers,
privatizing the distribution of benefits by eliminating
the current preferential tax treatment of pretax spending
accounts and on-site child care programs, and mandating
the employer provision of child care benefits.
