UNITED KINGDOM | ADVOCACY & POLICY | HEALTH
The True Cost of Childcare in England
Low pay and high abortion rates. How the childcare industry is disproportionately affecting women.
WORDS BY FREDERIKA WARREN | WARREN@PROXYBYIWI.COM | 19 DECEMBER 2023
The childcare industry in England is disproportionately affecting women – women who work in childcare, and those who send their children to a childcare provider. I have spent years working for childcare providers across England earning between £6.31 and £7.50 an hour. I also recently become a parent. Finding out that the average cost of childcare in my area is £100 a day, has not only been a bitter pill to swallow, but has impacted my career choices, family planning and lifestyle. Like many in England, I have changed career, reduced my hours and moved to try and lessen the impact of extortionate childcare costs.
1. CHILDCARE IS UNDERFUNDED BECAUSE IT IS RUN BY WOMEN
Childcare is a predominantly female-run industry; 97% of England's workforce is female. Childcare is seen as women’s work, and it is therefore no surprise that the industry is underpaid, understaffed, and undervalued. The average woman in the UK works for free nearly two months of the year, even in female dominated industries such as education, with this gap widening once a woman becomes a parent.
2. THE UK HAS THE MOST EXPENSIVE CHILDCARE AS A PROPORTION OF WOMEN’S EARNINGS IN THE OECD
Alongside increased living costs, childcare costs have risen by 6% over the last year and are continuing to rise. A research study by Pregnant then Screwed found that for one in four parents, the cost of childcare is more than 75% of their take-home pay, with one in ten only breaking even or making a loss. With England having one of the highest childcare costs globally, the implications for parents and carers, in particular, women, are not hard to imagine. The number of women who have quit their career in order to take care of their child has risen by five percent in the last year, the first sustained increase in at least 30 years. Of the women who have remained in the workforce, two-thirds believe that they have missed out on career progression as direct result – unsurprising when 61% of parents have reduced their hours due to childcare costs or availability.
This coincides with the birthrate in England dropping to its lowest level in two decades and families are delaying having a second child due to the cost of childcare. Pregnant then Screwed’s survey of 28,000 women showed that 62% of women said that childcare was a factor or the main reason not to have more children, and that almost one in five women claim that the cost of childcare was the main reason they chose to have an abortion.
3. THE IMPLICATION OF INCREASING ABORTION RESTRICTIONS
In 2019, Ninety-nine MPs voted to keep abortion illegal in Northern Ireland. Abortion is a highly controversial and political issue in most countries globally. However, ensuring access to safe abortion services is vital for women’s body autonomy and empowerment. The Centre for Reproductive Rights states that 41% of women globally live in countries with restrictive abortion laws. Restrictions on abortion significantly impact women’s lives, and in terms of childcare costs, could put women in serious physical, mental and financial harm. Despite abortion rights having come a long way, in recent years there have setbacks in several countries, most notably the United States’ reversal in 2022 of Roe v. Wade, a country with equally high childcare costs. It can therefore be assumed that English women are not the only women for whom childcare costs play a role in whether or not they decide to keep a child, and the implications of this on increasing abortion restrictions could have on women’s lives.
4. IS THERE HOPE IN NEW LEGISLATION OR IS THE INDUSTRY BEING SET UP FOR FAILURE?
In the spring budget, Jeremy Hunt revealed plans to extend the offer of 30 hours ‘free childcare’ to children aged nine months to two years by 2025. However, with a current retention and recruitment crisis across the sector, only 17 percent of nurseries say they will be able to offer the free hours. The Early Education and Childcare Coalition’s report found that more than half of all nursery workers are considering leaving or planning to leave in the next 12 months, with an estimated 180,000 extra children entering childcare settings by 2025.
From my own experience, trying to find a childcare place for my daughter felt like trying to get a place at an elite university, despite starting the search at 20 weeks pregnant, and only planning to go back to work once my daughter turned one. I vehemently hope to see a positive change for childcare workers and childcare funding. However, having worked in and left the industry and seeing the current statistics, I find it hard to believe that this government will be able to live up to its promise. It is likely that the lives of women working in and relying on childcare provision in England will be impacted for the foreseeable future.
i. https://theconversation.com/underpaid-and-undervalued-the-reality-of-childcare-work-in-the-uk-87413
ii. https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/article/call-for-better-wages-for-childcare-staff-as-research-shows-gender-pay-gap-persists
iii. https://pregnantthenscrewed.com/6-in-10-women-who-have-had-an-abortion-claim-childcare-costs-influenced-their-decision/
iv. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/childcare-costs-uk-tax-gov-account-b2297179.html
v. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/childcare-costs-uk-countries-parents-children-london-b1061671.html, Statistics from Pregnant then Screwed
vi. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/oct/07/nursery-under-twos-costs-parents-england-65-percent-wage, https://www.coram.org.uk/resource/resource-coram-family-and-childcare-survey-2022/, https://www.coram.org.uk/resource/resource-coram-family-and-childcare-survey-2022/, https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/earningsandhoursworkedallemployeesashetable8
vii. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/mar/08/two-thirds-of-women-say-childcare-duties-affected-career-progression, https://pregnantthenscrewed.com/the-50k-parent-penalty-one-in-five-parents-in-households-earning-under-50k-leave-the-workforce-due-to-childcare-costs/
viii. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/17/birthrate-in-england-and-wales-drops-to-lowest-level-in-two-decades, https://pregnantthenscrewed.com/6-in-10-women-who-have-had-an-abortion-claim-childcare-costs-influenced-their-decision/
ix. https://pregnantthenscrewed.com/6-in-10-women-who-have-had-an-abortion-claim-childcare-costs-influenced-their-decision/
x. https://reproductiverights.org/maps/worlds-abortion-laws/
xi. https://focus2030.org/Where-do-abortion-rights-stand-in-the-world-in-2023
xii. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/nov/06/staff-exodus-could-hinder-expansion-of-free-childcare-in-england-providers-say
xiii. https://www.earlyeducationchildcare.org/early-years-workforce-report