With his daughter Ivanka by his side, Donald Trump has rolled out a plan aimed at making child care more affordable in a bid to build his appeal with women voters.
"We need working mothers to be fairly compensated for their work, and to have access to affordable, quality child care for their kids,'' Trump said in Aston, Pennsylvania.
Ivanka Trump introduced her father in Pennsylvania and, earlier in the day in Iowa, the candidate credited his daughter for his action on the issue.
"She is the one who has been pushing for it so hard: `Daddy, Daddy we have to do this.' She's very smart, and she's right,'' the candidate said.
Trump proposed guaranteeing six weeks of paid maternity leave to employees whose employers don't offer leave already. The payments would be provided through existing unemployment insurance - though it has yet to spell out how the system would cover those costs.
Trump's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, has called for 12 weeks parental leave for both mothers and fathers paid for by taxes on the wealthy.
Trump previously proposed reducing child care costs by allowing parents to fully deduct the average cost of child care from their taxes.
On Tuesday, he expanded that proposal to allow families with a stay-at-home parent to qualify for the deduction and to include costs associated with caring for elderly dependent relatives.
The deduction would apply only to individuals earning $US250,000 ($A334,275) or less, or $US500,000 or less if filing jointly.
But because Trump's proposal is a tax deduction rather than credit, its greatest benefits would go to affluent households.
More than 40 per cent of US taxpayers don't make enough money to owe taxes to the federal government, meaning they would not benefit from a deduction.
Lower-income earners would receive child-care spending rebates through expanding the existing Earned Income Tax Credit.Trump also proposed incentives for employers to provide child-care options at work.
Carmel Martin at the liberal Center for American Progress said the new savings accounts would create a potential tax shelter for wealthy people and that Trump's proposals remain tilted to the rich because the low-income child-care rebates top out at $US1,200.
"It would definitely work for Ivanka, but not for most American families,'' Martin said.
