The report finds that the cost of childcare, with wage growth slowing, has worsened a ‘motherhood penalty’, pricing many women out of work altogether. Average nursery costs per week rose by more than a fifth between 2015 and 2022, while average weekly earnings rose by just 14%.
 
Paddy Lillis – Usdaw General Secretary says: “For some time the key driver of the gender pay gap has been a ‘motherhood penalty’ and women are being hit even harder by the rising cost of living and increasing cost of childcare. With this and the gap in free childcare provision between ages one and three, more women are being priced out of work.
 
“The lack of affordable childcare is a huge challenge in balancing work with parental responsibilities. Tory inaction means many low-income parents simply cannot afford formal childcare and we have called on the Chancellor to address this in next month’s Budget, including the funding of breakfast clubs in every primary school. We also need urgent and wide-ranging reform of Universal Credit, particularly the removal of upfront childcare costs for claimants and uprating the childcare cost caps.
 
“Workers need urgent and substantial reform to address the long-running childcare challenge. The cost of living crisis has been particularly difficult for families with children, who are less able to cushion the impact of the rise in prices, squeeze on wages and cuts to social security benefits.
 
“We welcome Labour’s commitment to a new system to give children the best start in life and parental choice, including introducing breakfast clubs in every primary school in England. This will enable parents to get back into work or to increase their hours, giving our economy the growth we need.”

Usdaw is calling for:

• Flexible working to be a day-one right and the Government to help employers provide flexible jobs to recruit parents back into work.
• Childcare to be more affordable, costing a household no more than 5% of their income.
• A new deal for workers to make work pay and end the insecure employment that leaves too many struggling with the cost of living.
• Universal credit and social security to provide the safety net that many need and stop being a disincentive to earn more. 

Notes for editors:
 
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest trade union with around 360,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades.
 
Labour’s New Deal for Workers: www.usdaw.org.uk/LaboursNDW
 
Women in Work 2022: https://www.pwc.co.uk/economic-services/WIWI/pwc-women-in-work-index-2022.pdf
 
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion