About 75 percent of US women in their prime working years are employed, a record high. These women are playing a crucial role in helping to ease labour shortages and alleviating upward pressure on inflation. That’sespecially true of mothers with young children. But the expiration of $24 billion in pandemic-era emergency aid to child-care providers not only threatens to undo the gains women have made in the labour force but harm the broader economy now and in the future.
What makes the record employment rate for women so impressive is how fast it recovered from the eight-percentage-point plunge at the start of the pandemic, which was twice the decline for prime-age men. The result was a larger spike in unemployment than for men since women are more likely to work in the service sector, which was hardest hit by the pandemic. Plus, many women — especially those with children — dropped out of the labor force as schools and child-care providers closed.
Recognising the strain on working parents, the American Rescue Plan included emergency aid as a stopgap to keep day-care centers open and in-home care operating. It offered grants for maintenance, utilities and salaries for caregiver staff. A portion went to expanding centers, but the primary goal was to protect the services that were available. A survey during the pandemic by the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, revealed that one-third of providers said they would likely have to close permanently without aid. But the aid ended last week.