Today is Working Parents Day, honoring the working parents who work outside the home to provide for their families.

As a working mom, I can attest that the balancing act of working and caregiving is challenging. We should not remember that today, many parents work while at home, and that is just as valid. Remote work has been a tremendous help in balancing both responsibilities. 

Millions of parents also balance parenting responsibilities and work through independent contracting. Therefore, policymakers should encourage new modes of work such as gig work or freelancing rather than forcing everyone into traditional employment. The Biden-Harris Administration has not only waged war on working women but working parents with its new restrictive independent rule.

Facts about working parents

Based on recent Census data for households in 2023:

  • 80.2% of families with at least one employed family.
  • 92% percent of families with children had at least one employed parent.
  • The labor force participation rate—the percent of the population working or looking for work—for all mothers with children under age 18 was 74%.
  • Married mothers are less likely to work than mothers with unmarried mothers.
  • By contrast, married fathers are more likely to participate in the labor force than unmarried fathers.
  • More than two in three (69%) mothers with young children (under age 6) participated in the labor force compared to 95% of fathers with children under age 6.

Pew research data also provides more context about changing parental roles among men and women:

  • Almost 1 in 5 stay-at-home parents in the U.S. are dads
  • A majority (55%) of U.S. mothers with children younger than 18 at home are employed full time, up from 34% a half-century ago.

When balancing work with caregiving, parents explain the challenges and tradeoffs they face: 

  • Slightly over half of working mothers reduced their work hours (54%) compared to 44% of fathers.
  • About half of working mothers said they couldn’t give 100% at work (51%) compared to 43% of fathers.
  • About one-in-five working parents, including 23% of working moms and 15% of working dads, turned down a promotion to balance work and parenting responsibilities.
  • Two out of three (66%) working parents in the U.S. suffer from parental burnout.

Policies matter

Affording childcare and creating greater flexibility are important issues for policymakers to tackle to better support working parents.

First, at the federal and state levels, labor policies should protect and encourage the creation of flexible jobs. Gig work, freelancing, and independent contracting are all ways that America’s parents can remain attached to the labor force by earning full-time or side incomes. 

Any policies that reclassify independent contractors as employees rob moms and dads of the freedom to work around parenting responsibilities. Traditional jobs may be good for some parents, but not all moms and dads want to work for someone. The ability to be one’s own boss is an important parental right to be protected. 

Second, paying for childcare is a heavy burden. Families spend significant proportions of their monthly budget on childcare while they work. Some policymakers on the left have offered the creation of a universal program that would seek to provide all parents with child care and subsidize the creation of more childcare. Good intentions cannot overcome bad outcomes. As my colleague, Carrie Lukas explained, 

Such a program would not provide the types of care that many parents want and would increase costs across the board. 

Build Back Better’s childcare provisions would have made the federal government the biggest player in daycare and preschool programs and included a raft of regulations that would discourage the development of innovative and diverse childcare providers and undermine faith-based childcare centers, which are currently used by 51% of working parents. 

…

Rather than heavily subsidize the provision of government-approved day care, the government should reduce burdens on parents so that they have more resources and can choose whatever form of child care, including family care, that they prefer.

Additionally, if parents can keep more of their incomes by cutting taxes, they will have more available for childcare and other expenses related to raising children. Three and a half years of inflation have eaten up take-home pay. Cutting taxes and forgoing inflationary policies will provide households relief.

More innovation and competition will spur childcare expansions to give families more choices at lower prices. At the very least, the federal government should not prioritize one type of childcare over another.

Bottom Line

We can honor working parents by supporting them in working flexibly and driving down the costs of childcare through deregulation and innovation.