Over a third of a couple’s salary goes on childcare
WOMEN are being kept out of the workplace because families face the second- highest childcare costs in the world.
A couple with two young children will spend an average 35.7 per cent of their salary on childcare, just behind New Zealand at 37.3 per cent.
That is compared with childcare costs at 2.6 per cent in the Czech Republic.
Pensions firm Scottish Widows says lower earnings often mean it is not viable for women to work and they are the more likely to cut their working hours or quit altogether to look after young children.
Women already earn less than men, on average, while three- quarters of all part- time workers are female.
This means they save an average £ 1,300 less than men into pensions each year. A woman would need to work an extra 37 years past state pension age for the chance to build up a pot the same size as a man.
In addition, during the pandemic mothers are one and a half times more likely to have lost or quit their job ( 16 per cent) compared with fathers ( 11 per cent), according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Jackie Leiper, managing director of workplace savings at Scottish Widows, says it is time to recognise the unfairness women face.
As families look to balance the cost of childcare, women are the ones who take a hit to their savings potential.
She said: “It’s time to recognise not just the unfairness of this situation, but the impact of preventing productive members of society from working.
“It means our economy is weaker, our productivity levels will remain stagnant and that it will take us longer to bounce back from the pandemicinduced downturn.
“Making childcare costs more reasonable and manageable will help us to level the playing field.”
‘ Reducing the costs will help level the playing field’