Sick child care options: what do working mothers prefer?
More than half of all mothers with children under age 6 are in the labor force. Working mothers must take off anywhere from 5.6 days to 28.8 days per employee per year to care for their sick children. In a survey of 134 working mothers with children in day care centers, 70% expressed an interest in sick child care options outside the home, especially a sick room at the child's regular day care center or an infirmary at the parent's workplace. Mothers who chose "out-of home care" were more likely to: be minority (p less than 0.01); be single parents (p = 0.06); earn less than $10,000 annually (p = 0.03); want their children with temperatures of 100-100.9 F to remain in school until the end of the day (p less than 0.01). Communities and day care centers serving especially lower income, minority or single-parent working mothers should consider investigating these out-of-home sick child care options; the savings to employers could be $2 to $12 billion per year, not to speak of the personal savings to the mothers themselves.
D000041:Absenteeism; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002656:Child Day Care Centers; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005260:Female; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D007223:Infant; D009035:Mothers; D014481:United States; D014930:Women; D014931:Women, Working