Maternal Employment and the Cost of Childcare in Ireland
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MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT AND THE COST OF CHILDCARE IN IRELAND HELEN RUSSELL, FRANCES MCGINNITY, ÉAMONN FAHEY AND OONA KENNY MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT AND THE COST OF CHILDCARE IN IRELAND Helen Russell Frances McGinnity Éamonn Fahey Oona Kenny September 2018 RESEARCH SERIES NUMBER 73 Available to download from www.esri.ie Copyright - The Economic and Social Research Institute Whitaker Square, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2 ISBN 978-0-7070-0457-0 DOI https://doi.org/10.26504/RS73 This Open Access work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. ABOUT THE ESRI The mission of the Economic and Social Research Institute is to advance evidence- based policymaking that supports economic sustainability and social progress in Ireland. ESRI researchers apply the highest standards of academic excellence to challenges facing policymakers, focusing on 12 areas of critical importance to 21st Century Ireland. The Institute was founded in 1960 by a group of senior civil servants led by Dr T.K. Whitaker, who identified the need for independent and in-depth research analysis to provide a robust evidence base for policymaking in Ireland. Since then, the Institute has remained committed to independent research and its work is free of any expressed ideology or political position. The Institute publishes all research reaching the appropriate academic standard, irrespective of its findings or who funds the research. The quality of its research output is guaranteed by a rigorous peer review process. ESRI researchers are experts in their fields and are committed to producing work that meets the highest academic standards and practices. The work of the Institute is disseminated widely in books, journal articles and reports. ESRI publications are available to download, free of charge, from its website. Additionally, ESRI staff communicate research findings at regular conferences and seminars. The ESRI is a company limited by guarantee, answerable to its members and governed by a Council, comprising 14 members who represent a cross-section of ESRI members from academia, civil services, state agencies, businesses and civil society. The Institute receives an annual grant-in-aid from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to support the scientific and public interest elements of the Institute’s activities; the grant accounted for an average of 30 per cent of the Institute’s income over the lifetime of the last Research Strategy. The remaining funding comes from research programmes supported by government departments and agencies, public bodies and competitive research programmes. Further information is available at www.esri.ie THE AUTHORS Helen Russell is a Research Professor at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and an Adjunct Professor at Trinity College Dublin (TCD). Frances McGinnity is an Associate Research Professor at the ESRI and an Adjunct Professor at Trinity College Dublin (TCD). Éamonn Fahey is a research assistant at the ESRI. Oona Kenny is a researcher at the Housing Agency and formerly a research assistant at the ESRI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research was carried out as part of an ESRI/Pobal Research Programme on Community Development and Social Inclusion. We gratefully acknowledge the funding received from Pobal to support the programme. We would like to thank our ESRI colleagues Tim Callan, Karina Doorley, Claire Keane and in particular Seamus McGuinness for ongoing advice on the study. The members of the research steering committee, Martin Quigley, Jerry Murphy, Richard Deane of Pobal and Tony Fahey, UCD, also provided helpful comments on earlier drafts of the report. Staff from a number of units at Pobal provided additional information to the researcher and constructive comments on the draft report. The final report also benefited greatly from the reviews received from two ESRI reviewers, from an external expert in the field and from the comments of our colleague Emer Smyth who acted as editor. Thanks also to Sarah Burns for her work on the publication. The study is based on analysis of the Growing Up in Ireland data and we would like to thank the GUI study team, the DCYA and the CSO for providing access to the data. Growing Up in Ireland has been funded by the Government of Ireland through the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) in association with the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection (DEASP). These data have been collected in accordance with the Statistics Act, 1993. Finally, our biggest thanks goes to the children and their families who participated, and continue to participate in the Growing Up in Ireland study, making it an invaluable source of information on children and family life in Ireland. This report has been accepted for publication by the Institute, which does not itself take institutional policy positions. All ESRI Research Series reports are peer reviewed prior to publication. The authors are solely responsible for the content and the views expressed. Pobal, the DCYA, CSO and DEASP take no responsibility for the views expressed by the Authors. Table of contents | iii TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................ VII CHAPTER 1 MOTHERS’ EMPLOYMENT AND CHILDCARE COSTS: POLICY AND PREVIOUS RESEARCH ......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Conceptual model of employment and care decisions .......................................... 2 1.3 Policy context in Ireland ......................................................................................... 2 1.3.1 State intervention in pre-school childcare ................................................ 4 1.3.2 State intervention in after-school childcare.............................................. 7 1.3.3 Regulation of childminders ....................................................................... 8 1.3.4 The costs of childcare – an issue for policy ............................................... 9 1.4 Labour market context: boom and bust .............................................................. 10 1.5 Literature review .................................................................................................. 12 1.5.1 Employment transitions of mothers with young children ...................... 12 1.5.2 Maternal employment and childcare costs............................................. 15 1.6 Current study: childcare costs and maternal employment in Ireland ................. 18 CHAPTER 2 DATA AND METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................... 21 2.1 About Growing Up in Ireland ............................................................................... 21 2.2 Measures used ..................................................................................................... 22 2.2.1 Use of childcare ....................................................................................... 22 2.2.2 Childcare costs......................................................................................... 23 2.2.3 Socio-demographic variables .................................................................. 23 2.2.4 Family/household variables .................................................................... 24 2.2.5 Labour market variables .......................................................................... 25 2.3 Statistical modelling ............................................................................................. 26 CHAPTER 3 MAPPING CARE COSTS TO PARENTS .............................................................................. 29 3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 29 3.2 Childcare statistics – the first three years ............................................................ 30 3.2.1 Use of non-parental childcare in the first three years ............................ 30 3.2.2 Hourly and weekly costs at age 3 ............................................................ 31 3.2.3 Costs at age 3 for different families ........................................................ 33 3.2.4 Childcare costs as a proportion of household income ............................ 36 3.3 Who pays for childcare and who pays most at age 3? ......................................... 39 3.3.1 Modelling the use of paid childcare at age 3 .......................................... 39 iv | Maternal employment and the cost of childcare in Ireland 3.3.2 Modelling the cost of childcare at age 3 ................................................. 41 3.4 Childcare statistics at age 5 .................................................................................. 43 3.4.1 Type and cost of after-school care at age 5 ............................................ 43 3.4.2 Childcare transitions – age 3 to 5 ............................................................ 44 3.5 Summary .............................................................................................................. 45 CHAPTER 4 MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT