New research from Germany suggests that childcare does more than get parents through the working week. It can shape a mother’s career long after the toddler years are over.
If you’ve ever tried to take a work call while a toddler asks for a snack, you already know that childcare makes working easier. What’s less obvious is how much a nursery place can affect someone’s earnings years down the line.
Researchers at Germany’s Institute for Employment Research looked at what happened as childcare places for under-threes expanded across the country. They found that mothers with better access to care were more likely to return to work, work full-time and earn more. They were also less likely to move into low-paid, marginal jobs. Those gains lasted beyond the years their children were in nursery.
The study compared areas that added childcare places at different times. The biggest changes showed up where places had previously been hardest to find and mothers had faced the steepest drops in earnings after having a baby. That makes sense: a job offer is only useful if someone can look after your child while you do the job.
The headline number is striking. According to the researchers, expanded childcare accounts for around 56% of the reduction in mothers’ post-birth earnings losses since 2007. To be clear, that doesn’t mean mothers got a 56% pay rise. It means better access to childcare explains just over half of the improvement the researchers measured.
Parents don’t need a study to tell them that a reliable nursery place can save a Tuesday. This one shows what happens when you add up all those Tuesdays: more chances to stay in work, take on hours and keep a career moving. For many mothers, the effect is still there long after the nursery bags have been put away.
Source: Based on the IAB study covered in Spiegel Online
