Researchers explored how families use child care subsidies in a new report and discovered the aid helps single parents work longer, though those with irregular hours may be less likely to use the aid.

Subsidies are a critical but tricky part of the child care economy. As a reporter I was surprised by how many mothers I interviewed who turned down raises or promotions to preserve their child care assistance. They wanted to keep working, but the subsidy was worth more than advancement.

In this new report, researchers learned child care subsidies help single-parent families work longer.

“We predicted that CCS (child care subsidy) use would extend the length of employment spells for single heads of families. This result was consistent in all three states…” – Employment Outcomes for Low-Income Families Receiving Child Care Subsidies in Illinois, Maryland, and Texas. “This analysis found that single parent heads of families who took up the child care subsidy were less likely to end eligibility by exceeding income thresholds compared with respondents who did not take up the subsidy.”

They also found that another big chunk of the working poor, those who work irregular hours or shifts, may not use child care aid as often.

“Clearly, there is a relationship between the subsidy participation decision of low-income workers and the time child care is needed. This suggests that working irregular days and/or hours may be an impediment to subsidy participation if policies largely limit participation to families using formal arrangements.”

This is a dense but important study, with a lot of space dedicated to methodology. Researchers used data from nearly 1 million homes and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Since supply-and-demand economics doesn’t seem to work in modern child care, enhanced government aid is one obvious fix. As this study shows, though, the link between child care and working poor families is complex, subtle, confusing and often broken, which means more study is needed as much as more government aid.

Thanks to Child Care and Early Education Research Connections for highlighting this report.