Parents hit as low pay, pandemic fuel child care crisis

In San Diego, marriage and family therapist Camille Kelly is struggling to find access to a child care center.

"I put myself on probably five to six waitlists for different child care centers in San Diego," Kelly told health information platform Verywell Health. "I even paid hundreds of dollars to be on some of the waitlists."

Kelly is not alone. Across the United States, there is a growing child care crisis made worse by the pandemic and stagnant wages.

Lea J. E. Austin, executive director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California, Berkeley, said the waitlists are a byproduct of child care shortages across the nation.

A survey conducted by the National Association for the Education of Young Children in July found that 80 percent of child care centers surveyed were experiencing staffing shortages, and half of the affected centers are serving fewer children.

More than 100,000 child care providers experienced closures during the early stages of the pandemic, according to a survey conducted by the association in 2020. Since then, 1 in 10 child care jobs has not returned. Nearly 110,000 child care workers left the labor force between February 2020 and September 2021.

High turnover rates

The issue has been fueled by high turnover rates due to low pay. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics found the average hourly wage of child day care workers was $12.05.

At 40 hours per week, the rate is roughly $482, which is less than half of the national median weekly earnings of $990. With child care workers getting paid like fast-food workers and centers having staffing shortages, parents are spending more for day care centers than they do for mortgages.

The average cost of full-time care at child care centers for children from infant age to 4 in the US is $9,589 a year, higher than the average cost of in-state college tuition at $9,410, according to a recent report from think tank New America and online marketplace Care.

As a result, some parents have stopped working or have cut their work hours. "Parents were already reducing their hours, dropping out of the workforce entirely, and really that burden ultimately fell on mothers, because they either couldn't afford or couldn't access child care," Austin told Verywell Health.

A household survey released last week by the US Census Bureau shows more than 7 million adults had to make adjustments in the past when children under the age of 5 were unable to attend day care due to safety concerns, consistent with recent months.