Childcare subsidies give mothers the choice to work and help reduce the earnings gap between mothers and fathers. In time, it may lead to greater acceptance of working mothers for future generations.
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Articles on childcare cost
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To encourage the ‘economically inactive’ back to work, the government is changing pensions, childcare funding and creating more support for people with long-term illnesses.
Investment in UK childcare should go towards better pay and conditions for workers. This could also help increase availability and affordability for parents.
The National Party is promising rebates for childcare. But similar policies have been discarded overseas for failing to effectively reduce the cost of childcare. Is it time for a rethink?
Jim Chalmers on Tuesday announced the budget outcome for the financial year just ended will be nearly $50 billion better than anticipated at the time former treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s delivered his budget in March.
The system has several elements and many problems. Making it fit for purpose will take a lot of work and even more resources than those that have just been announced.
Cutting the cost of childcare for families won’t help them if there are no places available at local childcare centres or people to staff them.
So high are childcare costs that on the fourth day or work per week a returning parent can face an effective marginal tax rate as high as 67%
The federal government introduced the current childcare subsidy and activity test in 2018. An evaluation of the policy has found it met some of its intended objectives but failed at others.
The Mitchell Institute mapped childcare availability across the country and found regions where demand rarely met the supply. They also looked at cost and workforce participation for women.
Top contributors
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Director, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University
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Research Fellow, Australian National University
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Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
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Associate Professor, Centre for Social Research and Methods, Director, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), Australian National University
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Senior Lecturer in Economics and Personal Finance, The Open University
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Ilan Katz is a Friend of The Conversation.
Professor of Social Policy, UNSW Sydney
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Director, ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods, Australian National University
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Associate Professor in Economics, University of Canberra
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Lead Economist, Monash University
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Policy Fellow, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University
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Senior Lecturer in Employment Studies, University of Manchester
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Senior Lecturer in Social Geography, Massey University
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Research Associate at the Work and Equalities Institute at Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester
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Professor, The University of Melbourne
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Professor of Economics, University of Bristol
