Lack of child care is still keeping many women out of the workforce; a newly increased tax credit could help

Though the job market has largely recovered, child-care issues still prevent many women from returning to work. Most of those who do work outside the home say child-care costs are overwhelming, and that financial support during the pandemic has been critical. One thing that may help such families: Congress beefed up a child-care tax credit to help families afford it.

The U.S. added about 467,000 jobs in January, but women still lag men in employment, according to a National Women's Law Center analysis. "Early into the third year of the pandemic, male workers regained all the jobs they had lost since February 2020. But the same could not be said of women: Since February 2020, 1.1 million women who left the labor force have yet to return," Anne Branigin reports for The Washington Post. The numbers point to long-standing structural inequities that still make it harder for women to return to work at the same rate as men, said Emily Martin, vice president for education and workplace justice at NWLC. And this will continue to affect women’s workforce participation for months, experts say, even as some aspects of American life return to 'normal.'"

Child care is a massive problem. In a September poll of 2,000 parents, 84% said the cost was overwhelming, 70% said they spent their stimulus money on it, and 40% said they had gone into debt over it just to retain a job or a rare space in a center, according to personal finance website The Penny Hoarder. "A majority reported spending at least $750 per month on child care, and half said child-care expenses represented at least 25% of their monthly income," Nicole Dow reports.

The expanded child tax credit was a boon to working parents, but those payments ended in December. However, a less well-known tax credit might also help, Aimee Picchi reports for CBS News. The child and dependent care credit has been around since the 1970s, but it didn't keep pace with the cost. By 2018, the maximum $2,100 credit only covered about 10% of the typical cost of care for two children. But the 2021 American Rescue Plan nearly quadrupled the credit, bumping up the ceiling to $8,000.