Liana Sayer's findings featured in New York Times on universal child care

Claire Cain Miller, writing for the New York Times, examines why universal child care is still not applied in the U.S. Despite significant evidence demonstrating that more women entering the labor force will help the economy, and with universal child care it is easier for mothers to do so, the discussion of whether mothers should work at all still lies at the center of the universal child care debate.

Various studies show that ''when there’s high-quality, affordable, easy-to-find child care, more women work.'' Miller cites a study co-authored by Faculty Associate Liana Sayer, which states, “as child care costs increase over the decade, what happens is we see mothers are spending more time in child care.” Results are that only affluent families can afford good child care while a majority of mothers are forced to stay at home taking care of their children, widening the social and economic inequality gap even more.

See the complete New York Times article

A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 17, 2019, Section B, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Child Care Still Stirs Up Resistance.