Australia will unlock more skilled and experienced workers, and families will have more money in their pocket through Labor’s Cheaper Child Care policy.
Independent modelling from the Grattan Institute shows that Labor’s plan for Cheaper Child Care will increase the hours worked by secondary earners with young children by 8 per cent.
This will unlock an extra 220,000 days of work a week for second income earners, predominantly mums.
That’s the equivalent of putting an additional 44,000 full time workers into the workforce.
This will help to address critical skills shortages by unlocking a large pool of skilled workers who want to work more.
Labor’s policy for Cheaper Child Care is an economic reform that will turbocharge Australia’s economy and let parents work the hours they want and need.
Labor’s Cheaper Child Care policy will mean:
- A family earning $120,000 a year, with two kids in long day care three days a week will be $44 a week better off or $2,332 per year.
- A sole parent family earning $80,000 a year, with two children in long day child care five days a week would be $46 a week better off or $2,392 per year.
- A family earning $150,000 per year with one child in long day care and one child in outside school hours care four days a week will be better off by the equivalent of $96 a week or $5,026 a year.
By making child care cheaper, Labor will remove one of the biggest barriers to working more.
The country and families are being held back by the cost of child care – Australia’s child care costs are some of the highest in the world.
Australian women work 2.3 days a week on average. Grattan’s research estimates Labor’s policy will lead to part-time workers increasing their hours by 0.4 days on average – a huge injection of skilled workers into the economy.
Labor’s Cheaper Child Care policy will put more skilled and experienced workers back in the workplace, open doors to career advancement and help women accumulate superannuation.
*** Examples assume a pre-subsidy daily fee of $115 for long day care and $20 for outside school hours care.