Do Child Care Susidies Help or Hinder Low-Income Families Efforts to Work?
Data presented at the briefing direct attention to the difficulties posed to families that are attempting to achieve self-sufficiency by both lack of access to financial assistance with child care and features of low-wage jobs. These difficulties constrain parental choice of child care, particularly among the working poor, and may create disincentives to employment. The way child care subsidies are currently apportioned may actually penalize working poor families relative to both nonworking poor and nonpoor families. Efforts to match child care schedules with jobs that often involve nonstandard and rotating work hours and inflexibility with respect to unpredictable family crises, such as sick children, constitute an additional obstacle to sustaining both employment and responsible parenting. All parents, regardless of income, want child care that is beneficial to their children, reliable and trustworthy, and-perhaps even more important for inner-city and poor families-that ensures chil
