Black Mothers Aren’t Opting Out Of Work, They’re Being Pushed Out

By Taylor Austin, Campaign Director, Workplace Justice, MomsRising

In July, BLACK ENTERPRISE published my article that addressed the phenomenon that Black mothers get underpaid twice, once at work and once at tax time. Two months later, a growing number of us are not getting paid at all.

Labor force participation among Black mothers of children under 5 fell 11.5 percentage points in three months this year, reaching its lowest level in more than 30 years, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of federal data. White and Hispanic mothers pulled back far less.

The easy explanation is that Black mothers are choosing to step back. I lead workplace justice campaigns at MomsRising, and that is not what the data shows. Black mothers are being pushed out by an economy that took their jobs, priced their childcare out of reach, and left no cushion for the fall.

The jobs went first

Black women built middle-class careers in public service, and in 2025 those careers were cut. Black women lost roughly 95,000 federal jobs last year, and their employment rate fell 1.4 percentage points, one of the sharpest one-year drops in a quarter century, according to the Economic Policy Institute. College-educated Black women took the biggest hit, a 3.5-point drop. Their unemployment rate climbed from 5.8% to 6.7%.

For many mothers, the next job pays less than the one they lost, and it has to cover everything the old one did.

Then the math stopped working

Researchers at the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity and Race found that none of the college-educated Black mothers out of the workforce over the past year said the reason was that they could not arrange childcare. The steepest declines were among married mothers in households at or below the median income.

That tells us this is about money. Center-based care for an infant runs as high as $31,544 a year, and in 41 states and Washington, D.C., center care for two children costs more than a typical mortgage, according to the Labor Department’s national childcare price database. When one paycheck disappears, and the remaining one cannot cover both the mortgage and the childcare bill, a mother leaving work is arithmetic. It is not a lifestyle choice.

Congress needs to champion bold solutions

From New Mexico to New York, momentum is growing for free, universal childcare. Why? Because families are tired of underfunded solutions that most of our families won’t feel. The United States ranks near the bottom among developed nations for public funding of childcare and early childhood education. It’s time for Congress to catch up and make universal childcare a reality: a free program that ensures true parental choice for early education and care for children up to age 13, including center-based childcare, family childcare homes, and family, friend, or neighbor care. Congress should also pass paid family and medical leave, so having a baby stops functioning as a job loss; and the lawmakers who cut the federal workforce should reckon with who paid the price.

Employers have work to do, too. Pay range transparency, childcare stipends, and flexible schedules keep mothers in jobs they are good at. A company that loses a Black mother to a childcare bill loses an employee it spent years training.

What we lose

When a Black mother leaves the workforce, her family loses income, her retirement savings stop growing, and her children lose the security her paycheck provided. Her employer loses her skills, and the economy loses a worker it cannot easily replace.

We do not need another round of commentary about why Black mothers are stepping back. We need childcare we can afford, leave we can take, and jobs that do not disappear. Congress has until Dec. 11, when the government’s stopgap funding runs out, to start.

About the author

Taylor Austin is the campaign director for MomsRising’s Workplace Justice Campaigns, where her portfolio focuses on advocating for and organizing around paid family and medical leave, pay equity for women, and family economic security. Her professional background is rooted in reproductive healthcare and advocacy, protecting reproductive rights through grassroots organizing, public education, and legislative change within Pennsylvania. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Public Health from Temple University and a Master of Science in Health Administration from Saint Joseph’s University. A proud Philadelphia transplant, Taylor lives in the Philadelphia suburbs with her husband, their two children, and an ever-growing collection of plant babies.