One of the infant rooms at Bright and Early Discoveries Child Care Center, run by Jennifer Lamaina. Photo courtesy of Lamaina.
October 23, 2024 —
Julia Locke New York childcare workers lose workers as tuition increases as federal funding dries up
This article originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication that examines power in New York. Sign up for our newsletter here.
More than 15,000 child care providers in New York counties have become the beneficiaries of billions of federal dollars injected into the industry by President Joe Biden’s pandemic relief package. Child care providers reported using the funds to pay rent and worker wages to maintain care for about 676,000 children in the state.
“It’s allowed us to keep our doors open,” said Victor Vargas, a retired teacher who runs a day care out of his South Bronx home. His daycare had a staff of eight and benefited from a stabilization grant from the federal government and a workforce retention grant established by the state using federal funds.
But with federal funding running out last September, child care providers are struggling as the margin between their costs and what parents can pay and what state child care subsidies can cover has become increasingly narrow. I am doing it. Over the past year, 44% of New York child care providers have raised tuition fees, and a third have raised tuition costs for their staff, according to a new report from the Century Foundation, a liberal think tank, based on surveys and federal data. It is said that the amount has been reduced.
New York City has increased its own investment in child care in recent years, primarily in the form of subsidies for parents and tax credits for child care workers, but lawmakers and advocates have argued that the city has increased its own investment in child care, primarily in the form of subsidies for parents and tax credits for child care workers, but lawmakers and advocates have argued that raising wages, especially for low-wage workers Therefore, we are seeking further funding. .
Childcare workers in New York state are facing pay cuts this year because the state budget gave the industry a lower pay boost than last year.
“The field is in complete turmoil right now,” said state Sen. Jabari Brisport, who chairs the Legislature’s Committee on Children and Families and is proposing state funding for universal child care. “There is,” he said.
Twelve percent of New York state child care workers live below the federal poverty level, but the industry average wage is just over $32,900, the highest in the state, compared to 5 percent of all child care workers in the state. They are some of the lowest paid workers.
“You expect that we can hire staff, keep them here, and make them want to be here, because what exactly are they receiving in compensation? ?It’s not about the money,” Vargas said. “Because we can’t compete with anyone else. It’s difficult for us to stay in the market.”
The industry was already shedding workers when the federal funding cliff occurred. Employment in New York’s child care industry fell 32 percent between 2019 and 2023, according to an analysis of federal data by the Century Foundation (this data does not include kindergarten teachers and instructional assistants).
“Wages are rising in other sectors, such as retail and food service,” said Julie Cashen, director of women’s economic justice at the Century Foundation and lead author of the report. “Even if you like training and you like working with kids, people are leaving the child care sector because they can make more money selling coffee. It means to end.”
The Century Foundation previously warned that 70,000 programs across the country could close when funding ends in September 2023. Some Congressional Democrats and the White House pushed for a new round of child care funding to avert a crisis, but it didn’t have the votes needed to pass.
A year after its cancellation, the most apocalyptic scenarios are yet to materialize, a think tank acknowledged in a report released Wednesday. But states are seeing a “downward spiral” as providers raise rates to stay open and struggle to find and retain workers.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who calls herself the state’s “first mom governor,” has made affordable child care a top priority. In 2022, she committed to spending $7 billion on child care over the four years of her term.
“As a mother who was forced to quit her job due to lack of child care, I am proud to work with Majority Leader Stewart Cousins and Congressman Heastie to make this historic investment and provide opportunities for working parents. I am proud of what we have provided,” Hochul said at the time.
Dede Hill, policy director at the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, said the commitment is “important and welcome.” Thanks to recent program expansions, more than half of New York’s children now qualify for child care subsidies, but only a minority actually receive them.
“Unfortunately, there is a real risk that the state’s failure to invest in its workforce threatens the success of other historic investments in child care assistance,” Hill said. “You can expand eligibility to tens of thousands of families, as states have done, but if they can’t find program slots for their children because there aren’t enough workers, it doesn’t do much for families. It makes no sense.”
Statewide, the number of child care slots that child care providers are approved to offer is about the same as in 2021. While some parts of the state, especially poorer and rural areas, are seeing fewer slots, others are seeing an increase. However, many providers are operating below their capacity. In a March 2023 survey, 1,600 providers reported nearly 30,000 license slots that could not be filled due to staffing shortages.
In 2023, Hochul and the state Legislature agreed to spend $500 million in discretionary federal pandemic relief funds and provide bonuses of up to $3,000 to $110,000 to child care workers across the state. This spring, Hochul and lawmakers allocated the remaining unused portion of those funds for small bonuses.
According to the governor’s office, more than 80,000 child care workers have received bonuses totaling more than $5,000 in the past two years. “We are committed to continuing to strengthen our child care programs, grow our workforce, and expand access to affordable child care for New Yorkers,” the office said in a statement.
Advocates had called on the state to invest its own money in the workforce and establish a $2 billion Child Care Compensation Fund in this year’s state budget.
The proposal is modeled after a similar program in Washington, D.C., which provides an extra $12,000 to child care workers’ salaries. According to a Cornell University analysis, it would cost nearly $800 million to raise the minimum wage for childcare workers to $23.55 an hour, the median starting wage for kindergarten teachers in New York state.
Both the Senate and Assembly budget proposals included a smaller fund in the budget, but Hochul rejected it outright.
“She was completely unwilling to commit any new state money to fund this proposal. She was solely focused on finding ways to repurpose federal funds and keep them intact. ,” Briport said.
