The Nation - News from July 27, 1989

Working mothers spent $14 billion in 1986 on care for children younger than 15, with poor women paying disproportionately high percentages of their family income, the U.S. Census Bureau reported. In the most detailed survey of working women’s child care arrangements yet conducted, the bureau spotlighted disparities that are fueling a drive on Capitol Hill toward child care help for poor families. About a third of the 18.2 million working mothers with children under 15 made cash payments for child care, paying on average $45 a week, or 6% of their monthly family income, the survey found. But women in poverty who paid for child care devoted 22% of their income--about $32 a week--to it. More than 29 million children--9 million of them younger than five--had mothers who worked full or part time in 1986, said Martin O’Connell, chief of the Census’ fertility statistics branch.