Child Care Needs and Work-Life Implications

Abstract

The need for child care is a work-life issue that affects families across all income levels. These issues are particularly challenging in rural areas, where nontraditional child care services may be more limited. Using data from a rural county in Virginia, this article examines income level differences in parents’ reported child care needs. We compare income groups along six variables. Our results suggest that lower income households have significantly more child care needs than moderate or upper income households along three of the variables: need for different hours, need for child care closer to home, and need for special-needs child care. These findings have implications for human resource managers as they consider work-life policies in their organization.