It was getting late and about the time for me to log off for the day. Right before I was about to leave, I received a semi-urgent sounding message from an employee saying he needed to call me. I called him on my way out the door.
“Hi, so…. I’m very sorry to bother you and call you this late but I needed to speak with you because I have to request tomorrow off. When I went to pick up my daughter at daycare today I was told that it is the center’s last day. They’re closing permanently and now we have no childcare. I’m not sure what to do. I am going to need to sit down and talk to my wife tonight to figure out something.”
…
I wish I could say this was an isolated situation over my years of being in a supervisory capacity, but the unreliability and lack of childcare is an issue that working parents continually have to contend with. For single parents, it is even more difficult.
Working parents continue to deal with this juggling act until their kids are of school age and can finally attend public school. However this can still continue to pose a problem with a decreased number of spots at aftercare programs in schools and getting into these programs.
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Strains on the precariously existing childcare system in the US prior to the Covid-19 pandemic were compounded even further after labor shortages and financial issues caused many childcare providers to shut down for good.
Child care workers continue to be in short supply due to minimally paid wages and long hours. The US child care sector is still recovering from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic at a much slower rate than other affected industries.
According to the National Association of Education of Young Children (NAEYC) almost 50% of Americans live in areas that have a significant shortage of available childcare providers.
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Every year the US economy loses $120 billion due to the lack of available childcare which contributes to the country’s labor shortage.
States lose an average of $1 billion in economic activity per year due to lack of childcare.
Without much fanfare or media attention, on June 27, 2024, the first-of-its-kind National Childcare Innovation Summit was held with the US Chamber of Commerce to discuss the childcare crisis in the US.
During this meeting, childcare was defined as an infrastructure problem that we must address as a country due to its significant effects on the economy and our workforce as a whole.
There are a number of issues involving childcare that need to be dealt with before any real progress will be made.
One major hurdle is the ever increasing cost of childcare. The current average yearly cost for daycare per child in the US is $10,000 – 15,000.
This figure in most states exceeds the yearly cost for in-state college tuition for public colleges.
Unfortunately, I know this financial burden very well. When my 2 children were both in daycare about a decade ago, I was forking over slightly under $2000 a month for my childcare expenses. The cost of my childcare was almost edging out the cost of my monthly mortgage payment.
I was not the only one feeling the pain. A close friend of mine posted a smiling selfie on Facebook of her making the last daycare payment when her youngest was going off to Kindergarten. “It’s like I am getting a very large pay raise today” she added to her post.
The US Chamber of Commerce has its work cut out for them to resolve the US childcare crisis that has been exacerbated over the last few years.
Bringing the issue to the forefront in a large-scale summit of this nature however, is a giant step in the right direction to deal with this impactful economic challenge.
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Childcare is not only a social issue or a ‘women’s issue.’ It is also an economic issue. In fact, it’s one of the most critical economic issues affecting families, businesses, and communities today.”
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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From The Good Men Project on Medium
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