Miss. needs more child care
Mississippi’s lack of quality, affordable child care is costing the state and its businesses up to $673 million per year, claims a study by three organizations.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation produced the estimate as part of a four-state study. In this state, the chamber worked with the Mississippi Economic Council and the Children’s Foundation of Mississippi.
The groups’ report calculates that employee turnover or absences that are related to child-care issues cost employers $553 million per year. These expenses can result from having to pay overtime to other workers, or having to train new employees.
Child care-related job turnover, or the wages given up by workers who take time off, costs the state an estimated $120 million in tax revenue each year, the report further states.
A survey found other noteworthy workforce elements affected by child care:
• More than half of parents, according to a survey, reported missing work during the past three months due to child-care issues.
• 41% of parents enrolled in a school or a job-training program postponed these efforts because of child care.
• Child-care issues forced nearly 11% of respondents to voluntarily quit a job.
These statistics can be debated, but both the U.S. Chamber and the MEC are strongly pro-business. There isn’t much for them to gain for by fudging the numbers.
The survey found that more than 75 percent of parents rely on family members for child care. For the rest, the problem is simple: Too many low-income or middle-income workers, whether raising children alone or as a couple, do not have access to professional child care, either because there’s no space available or they can’t afford it.
The report notes that most employers in the state don’t offer child-care benefits. It also gives the state credit for making some efforts to solve the problem, such as a pre-kindergarten tax credit and early learning collaboratives. However, programs like early learning have not been rolled out across the entire state.
The report includes a couple of sensible proposals, such as flexible working hours for parents with young children, and developing child-care programs for working parents who have non-traditional hours that include night or weekend work.
Working parents surveyed for the report said they’d benefit from more assistance from their employers, such as paid parental leave, flexible working hours and onsite child care. Many of those initiatives would cost money that employers may be unwilling to spend, even if they had participating families pay some of the expenses.
That’s an understandable caution, and it illustrates the challenge of solving this problem. Child-care issues are costing the state tax revenue and are increasing expenses for businesses. Yet there is hesitation for more aggressive efforts to reduce these occurrences.
Jack Ryan, Enterprise-Journal
