For those who are better off, low levels of maternity pay force women who can afford childcare back to work quickly after childbirth and, as women now take shorter periods of time off to have children, they find that they have improved their position in the labour market. While governments are keen to support childcare, particularly for the least well-off, there is a trade-off between using state funds to improve the quality of care and improving the affordability of care for all. While the former has been shown to improve social mobility, subsidising care is an important anti-poverty tool because it boosts women’s employment.