(The Center Square) – In a belated but nevertheless jubilant victory lap for the newest Pennsylvania budget, Gov. Josh Shapiro visited Bucks County to talk child care.
The budget includes a $25 million line item for a Child Care Staff Recruitment and Retention Program.
“Today, we are celebrating a truly monumental investment in child care,” said Valerie Hamilton, founder and executive director of Children of God Educational Services. “Child care providers are the workforce behind the workforce. They deserve competitive wages, families deserve affordable, high-quality care, and our children deserve safe, nurturing places to learn and grow.”
While the state hasn’t been able to move the needle on wages, the program will offer $450 annually to employees of licensed Child Care Works facilities. The state says the bonus will reach about 55,000 workers in an industry that is struggling to meet demand.
Still in high school, Children of God employee Madison Peneguy underscored the impact of prohibitively low income for child care workers.
“I’ve been working in child care for over a year, and even as a high school student, I know how important this work is,” said Peneguy. “My mom has worked in child care for nearly 16 years, and while I’ve always wanted to follow in her footsteps, the low wages in this field have made me hesitant.”
The struggle to access and afford child care has taken many women out of the workforce altogether. A June report from Ready Nation and the Council for a Strong America put the annual cost to working moms in Pennsylvania at $2.4 billion, 12% of their earnings.
Broken down, the report estimated an average loss of $5,630 annually from unemployment, lower earnings, reduced productivity, and job search expenses for individual working moms. For businesses, it’s $2,250 annually in reduced revenue and in extra recruitment costs per mother. For taxpayers, it’s $1,440 per mom annually.
Shapiro highlighted tax credits that would benefit the consumer side of child care. The state has tripled the child care tax credit for families and instituted the Employer Child Care Contribution Tax Credit Program.
“It only addresses half of the challenge – the affordability piece. We’ve done a good job on that,” said Shapiro. “We also have to focus on the availability piece and making sure that child care is available to those who need it in rural, urban and suburban communities.”
The state currently holds 3,000 vacancies in child care, which Shapiro says represents 25,000 slots for children. According to the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, the median wage for child care workers in the state is just $10.69 per hour, below the minimum wage of most of Pennsylvania’s bordering states.
