TUC urges employers to offer more flexibility as experts say UK economy is ‘paying the price’
The TUC has called for employers to offer greater flexibility for working mothers, after research suggests those with young children are much less likely to be in work than men with children of the same age.
On average, 64 per cent of mothers with children aged between 0 and 4 years old were in paid employment, compared to 93 per cent of fathers, according to the TUC’s analysis of the Labour Force Survey Q2 2016.
The analysis revealed that the age of a woman's youngest child influences whether or not she works, with the employment rate for mothers increasing by 11 percentage points to 75 per cent for those with children at primary school (aged 5-10) and by 17 percentage points, to 81 per cent, for mothers with secondary school age children (aged 11 and over).
Regional differences in maternal employment rates suggest that the factors governing mothers’ work decisions include the availability and cost of childcare, transport and housing, and access to good-quality flexible and part-time jobs in the area they live in.
In London, the West Midlands, and Yorkshire and Humberside, fewer than 60 per cent of mothers with pre-school children were in work, compared with nearer to 70 per cent in Wales, the South West, the East of England and Scotland.
Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC, said more needed to be done to support working mums if the gender pay gap was to close in the near future; this included making sure that affordable childcare was available from the end of maternity leave to the start of school.
She added: “We need employers to help too. We need vastly more good-quality part-time and flexible jobs. And employers have to be flexible too – like when kids start school and are on shorter hours for the first few weeks.”
Adam Marshall, acting director general at the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “While businesses and unions may not agree on everything, both believe the case for more action on childcare is clear. Too many parents – in particular women – are losing out on opportunities at work, too many firms are losing talented employees and the UK economy as a whole is paying the price.”
While the TUC’s findings highlight the significant differences between the numbers of working mothers and fathers in work, the latest data from the Office for National Statistics has shown that 66.5 per cent of single parents were in work between April and June 2016 – an increase of 22.7 per cent since 1996, and a major contributor to the growth in the number of working households in the UK.
Last month, People Management reported on a study from the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, which suggested that working mothers in low-skilled jobs were being forced to either considerably reduce their hours or give up work altogether after having a second child, with lack of access to childcare cited as a key reason for this.