Although it varies from state to state, we’re all aware of the fact that overall, child care in the United States is rather expensive.
According to statistics gathered by Child Care Aware, in certain US states, the costs of child care can top 15% of the median income for a married couple. And if we’re talking about single-family households in the country, the financial burden can pass 40% of the average income.
Despite the high costs, the smallest percentage of the money Americans spend on child care goes to the pockets of all the workers who are doing all that child care.
How Much an Average Child Care Worker Makes?
These women – although there are some men in the business, large majority of child care workers are female – are paid significantly less than your average US worker and are unfortunately twice as likely to live below the poverty line.
As a matter of fact, according to a recent study from the Economic Policy Institute, the average hourly wage for these women in the US is only around $10.4, which is nearly 40% below the average hourly wage of employees in other occupations.
Even if we account for the fact that a vast majority of workers in the industry are women – and that child care workers are more likely to be minorities – their hourly earnings are still staggering 23% lower than in any other occupation out there.
And if things weren’t bleak enough, we have the fact that workers in this industry have less access to vital benefits like retirement funds and basic health insurance then Americans employed in any other field of work.
Can They Even Afford Child Care?
Most of us think about child care workers similarly to elementary-school teachers due to the fact that they provide crucial education for children. But if we’re talking about money, a way closer comparison are food-service employees than school teachers.
So if you’re wondering if child care workers could actually afford child care for their own children, the answer is unfortunately – no, not in most cases.
Just look at this - according to recent US Department of Health and Human Services findings, for child care to be considered reasonably priced, it should only cost around 10% of family’s full income. And in case of child care workers, child care for their kids could cost around 33% of their salary.
Where Does the Money Go?
Getting into the business is not even that hard – it doesn’t require too much investment, you can open up shop at your home and there’s a number of government funded courses that could help you with the certifications you need to start.
However, if a child care owner has even a small staff, after they pay the staff, pay the rent and the materials they need for running their business, the money is almost all gone. All of these people have the same problem – paying their staff accordingly, while trying to keep their centers afloat.
But you’re thinking, if a day care center is good enough, it will have a ton of clients and in turn, more money. So how can a daycare center have a good number of clients and still have any trouble paying off the staff?
The Child-to-Worker Ratio
In order to explain this, you first need to know about the importance of the child-to-worker ratio. You see, the lower the ratio, the better, particularly if you’re working with toddlers who require regular dipper changes, feeding and a number of other tasks.
This makes increasing the productivity of the child care model way more difficult. From an economic standpoint, the solution would be to increase the number of children in these facilities and keep the number of workers the same. But this is impossible if you still want to have high-quality care.
Every child care business owner needs to pay for everything from rent, electricity and Internet to, water, food and educational supplies. And since the costs of all of those things are rising across the country, it naturally increases the expenses owners have every month.
The Bottom Line
Today, the number of child care workers in the United States isn’t really that high – according to Economic Policy Institute estimations, only around 1.2 million Americans work in the industry. However, the service these women and men provide to the country is important, to say the least.
Furthermore, if you’re a member of a household where all adults have a full-time job like the increasing number of Americans, the future and well-being of child care workers in the country should be especially important to you.
So what can we do? The government needs to intervene and provide income-based subsidies to child care workers or any other solution what would increase the recourses for paying employee wages and at the same time, make child care services more affordable for US citizens.
And no matter how or when government officials chose to intervene, all of us should be aware that of the problematic situation in the child care industry. And not just for the sake of the hard-working people who are taking care of all of these kids, but also for the sake of the families that they help care for.
