Nearly two in five UK mothers are unable to return to work because of the cost of childcare.
In addition to 37% being unable to return to work, a third (33%) spend more than 30% of their wages on childcare, research by temporary work platform Indeed Flex has shown.
Two in five mothers believe government plans to increase hours of free childcare announced in last month’s Budget do not go far enough.
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A quarter (25%) of mothers undertake temporary work as it offers the only practical way to fit work commitments around childcare, according to the new data.
Unsurprisingly, an even higher proportion of women whose children are not yet at school (three in five – 61%) say the prohibitively high cost of childcare prevents them from working.
OECD data has shown that UK childcare costs are among the most expensive in the world.
With the average cost of sending a child to nursery part-time costing around £7,729 per year, a third (33%) of working mothers are currently spending more than 30% of their wages on childcare.
Indeed Flex’s research found that a quarter (25%) of mums surveyed said temporary work was the only type of work they can easily fit around childcare. Nearly a third (30%) said that the flexibility of temping allowed them to be available for the school holidays.
Novo Constare, CEO and co-founder of Indeed Flex, said: “Nursery and childminder costs can swallow a huge chunk of new parents’ earnings, and with the current cost-of-living crisis squeezing every household’s budget, it’s no surprise that some women are put off going back to work.
“It’s clear that there is still a lot to do to balance the scales to make work more accessible for new parents, with women often facing the greatest barriers to returning to work after having children.”
Men and women affected
A further report, by Credit Karma, has found that the rising cost of childcare is harming the career prospects of one in three workers in the UK – including men.
Addressing pay inequity must mean more than just addressing base pay, we must look at the entire employee value proposition within a company” – Sabina Mehmood, Gapsquare
For Sabina Mehmood, pay equity leader and head of strategic initiatives at Gapsquare (part of XpertHR), the rising costs of childcare were effecting “the people already the most vulnerable to pay inequity. We’ve seen this globally – and now parents are being pushed out of the workforce altogether here in the UK.”
She said the Credit Karma study was “particularly interesting because we’re seeing the impacts on both men and women, in an area that historically has impacted women the most. A positive cultural shift sees a fairer share of household responsibilities across genders, in both heterosexual and same sex couples. But that also means, even in a dual income household, regardless of gender, one parent must make a trade off – career or children.
“We know the new government childcare support measures announced in the recent Budget won’t come into effect until 2024. In light of this, addressing pay inequity must mean more than just addressing base pay, we must look at the entire employee value proposition within a company – considering inclusive policies and benefits that consider elements such as childcare support, and living wages over minimum wages.
“A fair future of work means providing all people an equal opportunity to succeed, and this study underscores not everyone is starting at a level-playing field, and the workforce is worse-off for it.”
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According to PwC’s annual women in work index, released last month, the UK ranked 14th for women’s employment outcomes among OECD countries, down from 9th in 2020. The widening of the UK’s gender pay gap by 2.4 percentage points to 14.4% in 2021, four times the average increase across the OECD as a whole, coupled with a 0.4 percentage point decline in the female labour force participation rate, led to the UK slipping down PwC’s list.
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