Childcare key to 'employment trap' for young mothers

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A study by Belgium's bipartite consultative Central Economic Council, published in May 2002, has highlighted the financial and organisational difficulties faced by the mothers of young children when they attempt to enter the labour market. At the heart of this problem lies the inadequacy of facilities for looking after young children. The French-speaking Community has promised to increase the supply of childcare by 2010.

Since it came to power in mid-1999, one of the socio-economic priorities of the federal coalition government of Liberal, Socialist and Ecologist parties led by Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt has been to combat 'employment traps'- ie situations where it less advantageous for a person to work than to receive social security benefits. In particular, the government has focused on reducing both employers' and employers' social security contributions for low-paid jobs, in order to reduce the amount of taxes paid and make a return to the labour market more attractive (BE9910308N).

In a study published in May 2002 by the Central Economic Council (Conseil Central de l'Économie/Centrale raad voor het bedrijfsleven,CCE/CRB), a consultative body made up of representatives of employers' associations and trade unions, the economist Frédérique Denil sheds new light on a particular dimension of 'employment traps', and one of which young women with children are most frequently the victims (see La lettre mensuelle socio-économique No. 73, CCE/CRB, May 2002).

According to the study, there are two kinds of 'employment trap':

• financial traps. These refer to any situation in which the act of accepting a job brings no extra purchasing power, or only a small advantage, and might even entail a loss, when placed alongside existing income (eg unemployment benefit) and expenditure incurred by entering the labour market (eg travelling expenses); and

• non-financial traps. These occur in situations where other factors (eg discouragement, level of training or family situation) might result in people not being available to enter the labour market at all.

The CCE/CRB study highlights the financial obstacles encountered by young mothers when they try to enter or re-enter the labour market. At the heart of the problem lie the cost and supply of childcare places for very young children, These are 'decisive factors', according to the author, 'particularly for single mothers and those with a low level of education'. Unskilled mothers usually have insufficient financial resources to pay someone to perform household duties and look after children.

The study provides statistics that highlight the current situation in Belgium, and makes two observations:

1. the employment and activity rates for unskilled and medium-skilled women aged 25-34 are already very low, and fall when they have one or more very young children. By contrast, these rates continue to be very high among highly skilled women, whether or not they are mothers; and

2. the proportion of young women with children is substantially higher among unskilled women than among highly skilled women (74% as compared with 44%).

Against this backdrop, the study states, the existence of satisfactory, inexpensive childcare facilities would help young mothers to give more thought to a professional career. In the French-speaking Community, the 'coverage rate' (ie the proportion of children under three that can be looked after in centres such as crèches or by childminders) is particularly low, with the number of places representing on average only a fifth (22.5%) of the number of children of the age to attend them. The rate is as low as 16.2% in Hainaut, but climbs to 37.7% in French-speaking Brabant. Flanders is relatively well off with an average rate of 30.07%.

In an interview in the La Libre Belgique on 29 June 2002, the French-speaking Community's Minister with responsibility for very young children, Jean-Marc Nollet, announced that he intends by 2003 to submit a plan to reform childcare facilities for children aged up to three years: 'I undertake to raise the coverage rate from 23% to 33% by 2010. I have every intention of lodging by the end of this year a new plan that will meet an objective which, it should be pointed out, was established at European level at the Barcelona summit [the European Council meeting in March 2002 - EU0203205F].'

The Minister is considering original ways of increasing the supply of facilities, including day nurseries and systems which, as in France, involve the parents: 'Each day, one of the parents comes in to work along with the team of nursery nurses, and in exchange he or she qualifies for a reduction in nursery fees. I would also like to promote projects carried out in collaboration both with enterprises and with crèches.'