Imagine this: it’s 8:45 a.m., you’ve just finished the daily mad dash of wrangling your toddler, packing lunches, and triple-checking everyone’s schedule. You’re running on coffee and sheer determination. But then it happens—your childcare provider calls in sick, or your carefully balanced budget can’t accommodate this month’s tuition spike. Now you’re left scrambling, calling in late, rescheduling meetings, and wondering how much more you can stretch before something snaps.
If that scenario feels all too familiar, you’re far from alone. A recent report from KPMG’s Parental Work Disruption Index reveals a sobering statistic: between 1.2 and 1.5 million American workers—90% of whom are mothers—are missing work or cutting their hours every month due to limited, often unaffordable childcare options.
With federal pandemic-era childcare funding recently expired, the crisis is deepening, and families are feeling the strain.
The financial impact: missing out on income and career growth
The financial toll of inadequate childcare is staggering. For many families, every missed hour translates into lost wages, with families spending an average of $11,000 per child per year on care. Without affordable options, parents—especially mothers—are forced to reduce work hours, stretching household budgets thin. This disruption limits long-term earning potential, contributing to a gender pay gap that only grows over time, as public finance expert Joyce Beebe at the Baker Institute notes.
Women aged 25-44, who are in their prime working years, are the group most affected by these disruptions. The data consistently shows a disproportionate impact on these women, with many missing critical work opportunities due to the lack of reliable childcare. The cumulative impact over time means not only fewer raises and promotions but a growing gender pay gap that’s hard to bridge.
How parents are navigating reduced hours and limited options
Parents are getting creative, though these solutions are rarely sustainable. Some juggle shifts with partners, lean on family, or cobble together part-time care, which only adds stress.
Before the pandemic, nearly half of U.S. children under age 5 lived in areas with limited access to child care, known as child care deserts. During the pandemic, the federal government provided an unprecedented $52 billion in COVID-19 relief funding to support the child care industry. However, most of this federal aid ended in ended in September 2023.
The childcare crisis in the U.S. has reached a tipping point and some states have started addressing the gap. Massachusetts has invested $475 million in childcare grants, Vermont is expanding childcare subsidies, and California is increasing wages for childcare providers. However, without federal support, these efforts only go so far.
Special needs, special challenges
The lack of accessible, affordable childcare is even more challenging for families with children who have special needs. For these families, the quest for qualified care that meets their child’s specific needs can be an insurmountable challenge, adding an extra layer of complexity. When childcare is not inclusive or adaptive, these families are left with even fewer options, often at a higher emotional and financial cost.
The parental work disruption index: tracking the scale of the crisis
For the first time, the Parental Work Disruption Index gives us a monthly snapshot of just how many working parents are impacted by inadequate childcare. Since the pandemic, the index has shown a consistent increase in disruptions, with more than 1 million women missing work each month. The index captures the cumulative impact of individual missed hours, which translates into millions of lost work hours annually. This trend not only affects families but also contributes to productivity losses for businesses, highlighting how closely childcare access is tied to economic stability.
The long-term consequences of a system stretched too thin
What happens when millions of parents are consistently forced to reduce their work hours or leave their jobs entirely? This crisis isn’t just affecting today’s paycheck—it’s reshaping careers and the workforce.
As mothers continue to leave or scale back on work, the gender gap widens, and fewer women hold leadership roles. This “childcare cliff,” as experts call it, affects families, businesses, and even state economies as women’s workforce participation declines.
The urgent need for affordable childcare solutions
For the sake of families, businesses, and the broader economy, it’s time to prioritize sustainable, affordable childcare solutions. Because no parent should have to choose between their career and their child’s well-being.
Sources:
- Impact of the child care crisis on working parents. 2024. KPMG. The parental work disruption index: A new measure of the childcare crisis.
- The rising costs of child care and its impact. September 2024. The Century Foundation. Child Care Funding Cliff at One Year: Rising Prices, Shrinking Options, and Families Squeezed.
- Implications of the rising costs of child care. abc News. Skyrocketing child care costs show how inflation could impact 2024 election.
- America’s child care problem. March 2024. Baker Institute. Baker Briefing: America’s Child Care Problem.
- The expiration of federal child care funding. 2023. Los Angeles Times. Opinion: Federal funding for child care is about to fall off a cliff. Why that’s a disaster.
