Immigrant Labor, Household Services and the Work-Fertility Trade-Off in the United States

Heinrich Hock, Florida State University
Delia Furtado, University of Connecticut

The negative correlation between female employment and fertility in industrialized nations has weakened since the 1960s, particularly in the United States. We suggest that the continuing influx of low-skilled immigrants has led to a substantial reduction in the trade-off between work and childrearing facing American women. The evidence we present indicates that low-skilled immigration has driven down wages in the U.S. child-care sector. More affordable child-care has, in turn, increased the fertility of college graduate native females. Although childbearing is generally associated with temporary exit from the labor force, immigrant-led declines in the price of child-care have reduced the extent of role incompatibility between fertility and work.