This brief lays out the challenges many low-income parents face as they navigate the mazes of volatile job schedules and child care simultaneously. It provides an overview of the important but limited research in this area, as well as potential action steps, with the goal of bringing together two often disparate policy and advocacy worlds: job quality and worker fairness; and child care and early education. Neither can solve these problems alone, but with coordinated policy changes that address both issues, states can begin to address the pressing problems of working families and lay the groundwork for change nationally. (author abstract)