In 10 days, the U.S. will fall off a “child care cliff” — that’s the day pandemic-era funding for the industry runs out.
Why it matters: The funding amounted to a $24 billion Band-aid patched over an industry that’s long struggled. When the bandage comes off, the state of child care in the U.S. is likely to be even worse than it was before 2020.
Speaking up as the director for a smaller nonprofit after school care company. There’s lot to consider here. Our main facility is located in unincorporated LA county because it’s nestled right between two proper cities. For the schools we have our program at the minimum wage is currently $15.50/H, but our main office falls under the unincorporated LA county rules (even though we operate in a lower income area and this min wage is intended for places like Beverly Hills when we’re over an hour north of LA) so the dozen workers here we have to pay $16.90 minimum. We love our employees though so we often try to beat minimum wage for them, averaging about $17/H over our 60 employees.
This still leaves us with a higher cost for our services than we’d like - I think our breakdown is about $6.50 per hour which is still a lot for our local economy and we often give discounts. The child care resource center helps but the qualifications are ridiculous to meet for some reason so even though over half of our families should qualify, only about a fourth actually receive funding. Because of all these things, I only make about 45k/year while being one of two people (the other being my boss) running this company of 60 employees servicing 300 students.
State and federal govts need to step in to provide funding for child care. I shouldn’t have to be worrying about my own financial stability with how many responsibilities I have at work and our families shouldn’t have to cry to me on the phone about them not being able to afford proper care (please know I don’t brush these parents off, we are kind people that give heavy discounts to families in need). It’s a disgusting situation all around. After working in this industry for over a decade it makes me not want to have any kids of my own, ever.
P.S. Fuck the Boys and Girls Club executives. We share school campuses with their programs and we are often intervening in fights between kids on their program cause they notoriously understaff their sites and only ever seem to have 17 or 18 year olds working for them who have no idea what they’re doing.