Today’s child care system is a patchwork of various public and private local, state and federally-funded programs – one that ultimately leaves low-wage parents and their children with the illusion of choice. California’s more than 33,000 family child care providers have been essential to helping low-wage parents navigate the child care system – and more recently, have come together with these families under the banner of Raising California Together to wake policymakers and the public to the need for new solutions to this crisis of care.1 Bridging the experiences of low-wage parents with those of family child care providers that offer round-the-clock care to working families, often for below minimum wages, we can better understand the role child care and labor policy plays in closing the educational and economic achievement gaps plaguing California’s current and future workforce.

With funding support from the Ms. Foundation for Women, the Garment Worker Center, the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education (UCLA Labor Center), and Research Action Design surveyed 82 garment workers in LA’s iconic garment district about their experiences accessing child care. The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of child care demands on low-wage workers in the garment industry, in order to inform policy makers and the public about the needs of low-income working families. Workers’ responses offer a glimpse into the difficult choices working parents, particularly immigrant women, face as they attempt to care for their children and earn a living in the shadows of the 21st century global economy. Survey respondents were employed in the Los Angeles Downtown Fashion District. The district is located around major transportation hubs, apparel wholesalers, and around a readily available pool of recently arrived immigrants, often undocumented workers. Women, predominantly immigrants from Mexico, comprised 80 percent of survey respondents.