Who's Minding Their Kids? U.S. Child Care Workers’ Child Care Arrangements: An Assessment Using the SIPP

Laura Braslow, Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY)
Janet C. Gornick, Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY)
Kristin Smith, University of New Hampshire
Nancy Folbre, University of Massachusetts
Harriet B. Presser, University of Maryland

Using recent data from the Survey on Income and Program Participation (SIPP), this study analyzes the child care arrangements that three groups of child care workers - family day care providers, center-based workers, and nannies - use to care for their own children. Although there are substantial literatures on the child care workforce, and on child care arrangements generally, very little is known about the child care arrangements of child care workers. The authors describe variation in child care arrangements by occupational group and work setting, and proceed to identify and analyze intertwined individual and job factors that shape the links between holding a child care job and placing one’s own children in specific care arrangements. The findings contribute to our understanding of this important and growing segment of the U.S. workforce, determinants of child care arrangements by occupational group, and the complex interconnections between child care, work and family.