Labour is planning to cut childcare costs to allow more than 135,000 stay-at-home mums and dads to return to work.
Shadow children's minister Lucy Powell said Ed Miliband's proposal to extend free childcare would allow squeezed families to take on more hours.
The proposals would mean working parents with three or four-year-olds would get an extra 10 hours of free childcare a week.
Miss Powell said Labour will also give parents new legal rights to get early evening childcare at their primary school.
She said: "Childcare is a big part of David Cameron's cost-of-living crisis.
"Families have been hit hard by the soaring cost of childcare which is up 30 per cent since 2010 – five times faster than wages.
"At the same time, there are fewer childcare places available and families have seen the support they relied on to help make childcare affordable has been reduced.
"Our plans to extend free childcare from 15 to 25 hours for working parents with three and four-year-olds will make a real difference and help thousands of mums shut out of the labour market or prevented from working the hours they want by high childcare costs.
"Worth £1,500 per child and paid for by an increase in the bank levy, Labour's plans will help tackle the cost of living crisis and make work pay."
Would extra childcare provision help you?