High cost of childcare reason why 75% of stay-at-home mothers do not work

The high cost of childcare is the reason why three quarters of stay-at-home mothers do not work outside the home or have part-time jobs.

It means women are ending up with much smaller pensions than men and even suffer a “motherhood penalty” receiving smaller pensions the more children they have had.

While the cost of childcare has fallen as creches cut fees and mothers turn to family members, formal care is high by EU standards generally. Just before the crash in 2008 it cost more than 40% of the income after tax of a working couple.

Working mothers with children under three suffered less hostility than in many other countries with the just 25% disapproving compared to almost a third being very positive and the rest neutral.

In Denmark where the highest number of mothers work, the approval rate was 75% while in Austria close to two thirds disapproved.

The study, according to the European Commission, showed member states need to step up their efforts to improve childcare provisions if the EU is to reach its target of having 75% employed by 2020.

To achieve this means each country needs to provide childcare for 90% of children between the age of three years and when they begin school, and for 33% of children under three.

“Every parent knows how crucial affordable and accessible childcare is not only for the development of the child but also for working parents, Yet, so far, fewer than one-in-three member states has reached their own childcare targets,” said EU commissioner Viviane Reding. “Countries have to buckle down if they want to reach the 75% employment goal they have signed up to. Childcare provision should not be seen as a cost, but as an investment in tomorrow.”

Ireland for instance reached the 90% of care for children over three in 2010, but the following year fell behind it as the economic crisis bit.

Not being able to work has a very detrimental effect not just on a woman’s career when she does return to full time employment, but also on her pension, a study released by the commission showed.

In Ireland women over the age of 65 in 2010 received more than a third less in pension than men. The gap was narrower for women over 80 years of age at 20%. The result is almost double the number of women classified as poor compared to men.

About one sixth of women in Ireland have no pension, and the report says coverage fell six percentage points between 2005 and 2010.

Marriage and motherhood increase the gender pension gap while even single women who spend their lives working still end up with a pension on average 17% smaller than men in the same kind of employment.

Irish women tended to have more “broken careers”, working for less than 14 years in total and this has affected their pension entitlement.

There were figures for just a few countries, showing for instance that in France the pension gap was 31% for those with one or two children, but climbed to 50% for those with three or more children. The smallest gap was in Denmark where for those without children or up to two, it was around 5%, and 16% for those with three or more.