Stakeholder Letter: The Child Care Wage Dilemma

Message from Pam Tatum, President & CEO

Operating a child care program has long been a challenging endeavor – as parents struggle with the cost of care, child care businesses have struggled to offer high-quality programs based on a budget that largely represents what parents can pay, not what it costs to offer high-quality programs.

In August 2021, Quality Care for Children (QCC) hosted an online discussion related to child care business challenges and also posted questions to its Provider Business Exchange Facebook page to hear from Georgia’s child care providers about the everyday issues they are facing. Child care providers, regardless of whether they were for-profit (or taxpaying) or nonprofit or located in rural or urban communities, cited staffing as their biggest concern.
 
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the current tight labor market have combined to impact the business of child care in an unprecedented way. While child care enrollment remains lower than normal, it is recovering. At the same time, the current tight labor market has resulted in many businesses within the community increasing their hourly wages to attract employees, and many of Georgia’s child care teachers leaving the industry for new higher paying jobs. “McDonald’s pays more,” shared a provider from Troup County. “I just can’t compete.”
 
Even as the demand for child care is increasing, programs are struggling to hire – and retain – qualified staff.  Programs are operating below capacity, some with both closed classrooms and a waiting list. The Census Bureau Household Pulse survey conducted between July 21 and August 2, 2021, found that nearly 250,000 individuals in Georgia were home because they were caring for children. But, unless child care programs have staff, classrooms will remain closed, child care business viability is uncertain and employers shouldn’t expect parents of young children to re-enter the labor market.
 
QCC commissioned Opportunities Exchange to conduct budget analysis and cost modeling to examine the impact of a wage increase to $15 per hour on the sustainability and the cost of child care in Fulton County, Ga. While the market suggests child care programs must increase their minimum hourly wage to attract and keep trained staff, the budget analysis showed that without additional revenue, most programs that did so would be unsustainable. This financial impact was more severe on some types of child care programs than others, a finding that deserves additional examination.
 
A sustainable system of quality child care requires public investment. Providers and parents cannot shoulder the financial burden alone.  We must recognize that child care is essential to the economic recovery in Georgia, as well as Georgia’s long-term economic health. The Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning is making wise investments with one-time federal money. We need a long-term, sustained state and federal investment that will finally provide a living wage to a trained and skilled workforce in an industry that contributes more than $4.5 billion annually to our state’s economy. Without child care workers, employers do not have employees and our very young children are missing out on learning and social experiences that influence their future learning and success. This crucial child care workforce, for once and for all, should receive wages and support that are equal to the benefit they provide our communities.
 
Read QCC’s report, “Impact of a $15 per hour Wage on Child Care”, to hear more from child care providers about their staffing challenges, see the results of the budget analysis and cost modeling, and consider potential solutions.

Sincerely,

Pam Tatum
President & CEO