Report: Affordability, flexibility, mental challenges cited as barriers to improving childcare options

It’s no secret that the cost of childcare in Arkansas, and nationally, is an expensive burden for many families. A new Arkansas-focused report quantifies and offers new insight into the crisis that is keeping many out of the workforce and lowering the income potential for struggling families.

The Women’s Foundation of Arkansas (WFA), with support from Ingeborg Initiatives, released “Holding It All Together: Working Moms and Childcare in Arkansas,” a research report examining how childcare costs, workplace flexibility and paid leave are shaping workforce participation and economic stability for families across the state.

“Childcare, workplace flexibility and paid leave are not perks; they are economic infrastructure,” said Anna Beth Gorman, CEO of the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas. “When working women and mothers cannot afford care or find jobs structured in ways that allow them to manage caregiving responsibilities, they are forced into impossible financial tradeoffs. Arkansas cannot afford to sideline this much talent. If we want a strong workforce and long-term economic growth, we must treat these issues as central to women’s economic security and the state’s competitiveness.”

The research makes clear that for many Arkansas families, financial realities drive the decision about whether a mother works outside the home. When the cost of childcare rivals or exceeds a mother’s paycheck, or leaves razor-thin margins after expenses, many families decide that the mother remaining at home is the most financially rational option.

In many instances, men still earn more than their female counterparts.

The new report shows that childcare affordability has emerged as the single greatest barrier to employment, with 69% of mothers identifying childcare costs as an obstacle to working.

Many non-working mothers reported they would need to earn substantially more than childcare would cost in order for employment to make financial sense. In this way, high childcare expenses can effectively trap families in a one-income model even when additional income is needed.

“For too many Arkansas families, childcare costs consume an entire paycheck,” said Anna Koelsch, director of Ingeborg Initiatives. “When a family is paying roughly $17,500 a year for two young children — about 27% of median household income — the numbers simply don’t always work. We heard that many mothers feel they are priced out of the workforce.”

The study surveyed 825 women and added another 111 women interviewed individually or through focus groups. Key findings from the study, which was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2025, include:

• The average cost of child care for one infant in Arkansas is $8,900/year and $17,500/year for an infant and a preschooler, roughly 27% of median household income;
• Among mothers, 69% identify child care costs as a barrier to employment, making it the single most cited obstacle;
• Prime working age mothers (25-54) are more likely to be employed full-time (57.7%) than women without children in the home (47.6%);
• The labor force participation rate for mothers with kids under age 6 is 69.15%; and
• The labor force participate rate for mothers with kids under age 18 is 72.21%.

The report also points to gaps in paid leave. One in five employed mothers surveyed returned to work less than six weeks after giving birth, earlier than the medically recommended recovery period. Limited access to paid leave means some women return to work sooner than is medically advisable because their families cannot forgo the income.

“We were proud to support this research, led by the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas, because it makes clear this is not about individual decisions; it’s about how our systems are designed,” said Koelsch. “When childcare costs consume a paycheck, flexibility is limited and paid leave is out of reach, workforce participation becomes economically unsustainable. If we want Arkansas to compete, we have to rethink the systems our working mothers – and families – depend on.”

You can access the full report here.

The Women’s Foundation of Arkansas’ mission is to ensure economic security for Arkansas women and girls through collaboration and focused philanthropic investment. Ingeborg Initiatives, led by Olivia Walton, is a social impact platform dedicated to empowering mothers in the state of Arkansas by improving maternal health, advancing women’s economic opportunity and expanding access to quality care and early learning opportunities for children.

Anna Koelsch and Anna Beth Gorman appeared on this week’s edition of Capitol View. You can watch their conversation in the video below.