Lack of affordable, accessible child care continues to impede workforce growth

Mar. 9—DeShaun Baldwin experienced the challenges of finding affordable, available child care.

Baldwin, a parent advocate with the Community Action Organization of Western New York, struggled to locate a day care to place her son. She was put on waiting lists and wondered if she would be able to keep her job if something didn't open up.

When she finally connected with a provider who had an opening, it was a relief. And she was able to keep working.

"It's a definite need to have a place you can put your child in that has quality education resources, people who are passionate about their job and the work that they do," Baldwin said.

And the child care struggles that Baldwin faces are becoming more commonplace. In Erie County, the number of licensed providers shrank by 31, or 6.2%, from 2001 to early 2024, and the number of child care slots decreased by 5.5%.

Baldwin's story illustrates the critical role child care plays in the economy.

As employers struggle to fill job openings, the availability and cost of child care remains an obstacle to bringing more people into the workforce.

If potential hires can't find child care, or afford it, they will remain on the sidelines. That keeps the labor pool tight, at a time when the unemployment rate is already at historically low levels around 4%.

A new study by Cornell University's Industrial and Labor Relations Co-Lab found that in New York State, 42% of respondents to a poll said an adult in their household had decided not to be employed outside the home due to child care needs. Among those respondents, 76% said the reason was child care was either too expensive or unavailable/inaccessible.

It's not just parents feeling the pressure. It's an industry with low wages, putting a financial strain on workers who are in it. And child care business owners say they face burdens of their own from costs and staffing needs, prompting some to reduce capacity or close altogether.

Statewide, the number of licensed child care providers increased 0.5% from 2021 to early 2024, and the number of child care slots increased 3% over the same time period, according to the Cornell Buffalo Co-Lab study. But across 22 upstate counties, including Erie County, it was a different story, with child care capacity declining. In Niagara County, child care slots rose 3%.

The Cornell study highlighted the economic impact that child care has on multiple fronts:

—Child care workers in New York earn a median wage of $32,900, compared to the median wage of $54,300 for workers in all industries. Those low wages make it challenging for child care operators to recruit and retain workers.

"It is simple: Quality child care teachers are not coming back without better quality jobs that pay better wages," said Rosalyn Cheatom, owner of Our Family Child Care. "We need to be able to offer better wages, health insurance, retirement plans and pensions just to begin to level the playing field with major competitors."

Kristina Kleeh, director of Just For Kids school age program, said that when child care becomes unaffordable or inaccessible, "parents are forced to make agonizing decisions for their children. Do they advance their careers, or do they provide adequate care for their family?

"This dilemma stifles workforce participation, exacerbates income inequality and undermines the economic vitality of our state and our nation," Kleeh said.

—Ninety-four percent of child care workers in the state are women, and nearly 58% are women of color, so lower wages affect them disproportionately.

—Along with staffing challenges, child care business owners say they are grappling with inflation, regulations and other expenses in order to keep their businesses operating.

—Areas that lost child care capacity from 2021 to early 2024 were in census tracts with, on average, higher child poverty rates than areas that gained capacity.

Advocates say the state's investments in child care in the past few years haven't gone far enough. Some state lawmakers are pushing to include in this year's budget a $1.2 billion child care worker compensation fund. The fund would raise child care workers' wages, without placing the financial burden on the owners of child care businesses.

Steve Perza, one of the authors of the Cornell study, said creating a child care worker compensation fund in the state "would ensure a more equitable wage for child care workers and help address the severe child care shortage in Erie County, as well as other regions with similar problems."

"This is an expensive task, this is an expensive policy, but one that has a tremendous return on investment," he said.

With more workers attracted to the industry, there would be greater capacity available to parents who are searching for child care. That, in turn, would enable more individuals to enter the workforce.

Assemblywoman Monica Wallace, D-Lancaster, called state spending on child care "an economic development tool" and "one of the best investments we can make."

"We invest money in [semiconductor manufacturer] Micron [Technology]. We invest in the film industry," Wallace said. "The film industry and Micron, they're going to need employees to help run those businesses."

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