87% of millennials and Gen Zers say child-care costs affect their decision to have kids. (via CNBCMakeIt)
, founder of the GenForward survey project and professor at the University of Chicago. Although she's been fielding these types of surveys since 2016, Cohen has rarely seen such a consistently high percentage of responses indicating that an issue is important. "This should be a red flag to say that this is a critically important issue to young people," she says.
Additionally, the survey finds that when weighing the decision to have kids, access to affordable, high-quality child care actually plays a bigger role with millenials and Gen Zers than student loan debt, even though it's talked about much less. While 87% cite child care as an important factor, only 76% of respondents without children say student loans is an important consideration, the survey finds.
"Amidst economic strains, mountains of student loans and soaring housing costs, millennials and Gen Z understand that affordable, high-quality child care is a priority," says Levi Bohanan, policy expert with Next100. Among millennials and Gen Zers who already have children, 72% say that the lack of affordable child-care programs was a barrier to meeting their career goals. That's significant when you consider that millennials are the, making up just over a third of U.S. workers. When broken down by gender, 3 out of 4 women say a lack of child care has disrupted their professional plans, while 68% of men say the same.
When taken all together, the survey shows that "the lack of public investment in child care is reducing the ability of young generations to start families and begin careers," Bohanan says.
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