When I learned that I was pregnant with my first child in 2011, in addition to excitement and happiness, I realized very quickly that finding high-quality, affordable childcare would be a difficult task. Over ten years and two more children later, and childcare is still an ongoing issue in our household. Sadly, I know that our family’s story is not unique. Working families in New Hampshire are struggling to find sufficient childcare that is affordable, available, and adequately supports our state’s workforce.
“Sticker shock” is one way to describe my reaction to learning the cost of infant child care in a licensed facility. While reported median rates for infant care in New Hampshire hover around $265/week, many programs are significantly more expensive, including local Seacoast centers which average approximately $340/week. Rates decrease as kids age; however, care for even the oldest of these children is still over $250/week. Alternative options to families are limited.
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In my own family, in order to be able to afford the care we needed, my husband and I cobbled together a stressful schedule involving grandparents, working alternating “shifts” so one parent could be home, and choosing a facility that was 12 miles away, in the opposite direction of our workplaces, because it was significantly more affordable than the centers near our home. For much of the last 10 years, I have spent more annually to cover the cost of childcare for my small children than I did for each year of my college tuition.
Unfortunately, affordability is not the only factor at the root of our state’s childcare crisis. Availability is a major problem as well. Many centers have wait lists of a year or longer, especially for the critical infant and baby care spots. According to the New Hampshire Well-Being Data Hub, there is a gap of approximately 40% between the number of children under age 6 needing care, and the number of licensed facilities currently open. That gap continues to grow, as our state has seen a 37% decrease in open facilities in the last 20 years. The younger the child, the more difficult it is to find a spot, as the child-to-provider ratios change based on age, and child care providers report that it is extremely difficult to make the infant and toddler rooms financially viable for a small business.
Our state’s childcare problems significantly impact our state’s workforce as well. Centers cannot afford to raise the pay rate for our care providers without a corresponding increase in tuition, which is already out of reach for many families.
Pay is so low that many of our best caretakers simply cannot afford to stay in the field. This leads to significant staffing shortages resulting in facilities unable to operate at full capacity. The strain on the workforce is evident with the parents as well.
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Many families have little or no paid leave and are forced to weigh the cost of care with the ability to return to work. As an attorney in a small law firm, I had very little paid time off to cover any sort of maternity leave for both my first and second sons. Instead, I took on remote per diem positions and continued working from the very first week of being home with our sons – that is a precious time for a family, which should be prioritized and protected by our society.
As any parent knows, these care issues continue long after we’ve left the toddler room. Kids get sick, have school vacations, half-days – the list goes on and on.
Working families with inadequate access to paid leave, available care providers, and lack of flexibility in the workplace struggle to juggle care of their children and the demands of their jobs.
Some instead leave the workforce or find their careers stagnating as their choices are limited due to these care concerns. While I was fortunate to finally have paid maternity leave with my third son, that paid leave was presented as a tradeoff to a previously agreed upon raise of my base compensation. Sadly, as a business owner now myself, I understand what a huge financial burden it can be for a small business to cover the cost of an employee who (deservedly so) wishes to take an adequate amount of time off after having a child. There has to be a better way.
Working families need our help. Unfortunately, we are an underrepresented group in Concord, and not enough is being done to tackle these issues. Democratic proposals to create programs that would make the opening of new facilities more feasible, improve workforce recruitment, and ease some of the financial burden on families struggling to cover the cost of care, have failed to pass.
Please remember this in November and vote for representatives who will make New Hampshire a state that throws a lifeline to struggling working families.
Candice O’Neil is a local small business owner, attorney, mom, and community volunteer, and she is a candidate for state representative.
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