Childcare is a premium service for families these days. The rising cost of childcare and a lack of guaranteed family support is at the root of a national crisis that impacts many American families. According to a recent study, there are over 15 million U.S. children under the age of six whose parents are both actively working. Some parents pay as much as a third of their salaries on childcare for young children, with more than half of parents with children under 15 years old spending about 20% of their income on childcare. In both cases, these costs are well above the 7% threshold the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services uses as the expected sum for affordable childcare. Unable to find affordable childcare for their families, mothers, in particular, struggle to return to work as companies enact policies that require employees to return to the office. Reports show that employment among mothers has dropped 7.1% throughout the pandemic, indicating that they have been affected more than twice as much as fathers.
You might be thinking, the government has protections for essential services like childcare, right? Not necessarily. Nearly half of all U.S. workers are not covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act, meaning they do not have job security if they take unpaid time off to start a family or cope with an illness. Most workers who lack this coverage are low-income, women, and people of color. Americans lose tens of billions of dollars in wages each year by opting to take unpaid leave. In today’s conditions, parents – notably mothers – need to make uncomfortable decisions like; returning to work and paying considerable sums to ensure they have childcare coverage or, temporarily dropping out of the workforce. For most families, having a two-income household is a necessity, and the true impact of one parent not working for a period of time during a child’s early development can be deeply damaging. A lack of income means parents lose the ability to provide food, shelter, and basic living comforts.
In recent months, this economic strain has been magnified by inflation and a general increase in the cost of living. Parents receiving unemployment assistance may still struggle to afford rent, food, and clothing for themselves and their children. In Los Angeles, prices are up over 8% from one year ago. Unemployment payments and low-wage incomes simply cannot keep up with the rising cost of goods and services, let alone factoring in childcare expenditures. As many as 500,000 American families lack childcare support because it is difficult to afford. Inflation is impacting childcare centers and schools as well by driving up the cost of operations, supplies, utilities, and rents. Most childcare centers have to make the tough decision to either shut their doors or pass on the added expenses to parents by increasing their prices.
Where government programs are falling short, some companies requiring workers to return to the office are picking up the slack. Jobs that pay hourly wages or lower salaries are less likely to provide comprehensive family support, however. The families facing the greatest precarity are also the least likely to be protected and struggle tremendously to secure childcare.
At Maryvale, we create opportunities for affordable early childhood education to support some of Los Angeles’ most vulnerable families. We are intimately familiar with the delicate needs of infants and young children and are firm proponents of the critical importance of a nurturing, healthy early education. Our early childhood education centers have remained open continuously at every stage of the pandemic. Families with two working parents have relied on Maryvale to care for and educate their children each day while they earn a living. We have provided various in-person and virtual programs to supplement learning material for young children and ease parents’ burdens.
When it comes to early childhood education, Maryvale is addressing affordability head-on. We provide free or reduced-cost care for children in our programs so their parents can work or go to school. Our team works one-on-one with families to educate them about our programs and determine how Maryvale can provide extra support to low-income, working families, or unhoused families.
Are you ready to enroll your child, or learn more about enrolling a child in one of our programs? Please get in touch with us – we’re excited to meet you! If you or a family you know needs support, we invite you to inquire about your eligibility for free or subsidized early childhood education. To learn more about what our early childhood education programs entail, read about our special approach to working with young children.
