Photo: tylerhoff via Flickr Creative Commons
The election is (finally) just a few days away, and both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have pledged to revolutionize American child care if elected president. Given that child care in America often costs more than college tuition, most parents agree that we need daycare that is affordable and accessible.
Care.com released a report that explains just what Trump and Clinton have planned for child care and family leave — and what it means for you. The data was collected from the candidate’s website, along with reports from the Care Index, the Census Bureau, AARP, and Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Clinton’s plan:
- Caps the cost of child care at 10 percent of a family’s household income.
- Gives families more in-home and in-center savings.
- Seeks to make quality child care available to more college students by awarding scholarships of $1,500 per year for up to 1 million student parents and increasing access to on-campus center care, serving an additional 250,000 children.
- Provides up to 12 weeks of paid leave for a mom or dad after the birth or adoption of a child, and to anyone to care for sick family members; it would be paid at two-thirds of the employee’s regular salary.
Trump’s plan:
- Allows parents exclude the state’s average cost of childcare from income tax until children reach age 13.
- Offers more incentives to stay-at-home parents.
- Says families would be able to deposit up to $2,000 per year (tax-free) for each child in a Dependent Care Savings Account, which they could use for child care, education or enrichment.
- Provides six weeks of maternity leave for women after the birth or adoption of a child, paid at the same amount the mother would collect in unemployment benefits had she been laid off. This proposal excludes fathers.
Under both plans, Care.com estimates found about 2 million additional American mothers would be able to take paid maternity leave in a given year.
Care.com illustrates this information in an infographic. It’s calculations used households with two parents at three different income levels– the federal poverty level, median household income, and Top 1 percent in the United States– and in five “swing” states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Of course, there’s no guarantee the winning candidate will actually implement any of this. Still, for the first time perhaps ever, family-specific policies could make or break the election.
Who’s plan do you prefer? Let us know in the comments below!
