When child care gets too expensive or unreliable, cutting back one parent’s work hours can look like simple math. If daycare costs $15,000 a year and reducing work eliminates most of that bill, why keep paying someone else to provide care? For some families, cutting back genuinely is the best financial and personal choice. But comparing a parent’s salary with the daycare bill leaves out retirement contributions, employer benefits, Social Security earnings, future raises and career opportunities—as well as work-related expenses that disappear when hours are reduced. Before one parent goes part-time, calculate what the family is actually giving up and what it’s actually gaining.
