The UK has some of the highest childcare costs in the world, increasingly forcing women out of the workplace. I asked Christine Farquharson, from the Institute of Fiscal Studies, why.
Being a woman in her 30s, I’d rank childcare costs before bloating, but after climate in the list of “routinely discussed horrors”. It’s hard to make sense of.
Looking after young children is expensive. In the UK, we have a childcare ratio of one adult to a maximum of three under-twos. If you divide the minimum wage – £9.50 an hour for over-23s – by three, you’re looking at north of £3 an hour per child. It’s labour-intensive, and that makes it expensive. Then add rent, energy, etc.
