NEWARK − The child care industry does not seem to work for anyone.
Providers struggle to stay in business. Workers are vastly underpaid. And working parents either can’t find quality child care or can’t afford it.
The answer for some is to give up. Workers quit. Providers close their doors. Working parents leave their jobs.
Hayley Feightner, the outgoing assistant director of Grow Licking County, released the results of a child care survey Wednesday during a public meeting at the Licking County Library in downtown Newark.
The survey concluded Licking County needs 3,815 additional child care workers. The median wage for child care workers in the county is $11.88 per hour, or $2.14 below the rate needed for a household to survive one emergency expense.
The median cost of child care is $200, or $53 more than the recommended cost for Licking Countians based on median income in the county and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services guideline of 10% of income spent on child care. Some respondents said one parent’s salary goes entirely to child care.
“With this data, we can determine that child care demands are disrupting our local economy, compelling more than half of our respondents to rethink their current employment situation and limiting full-time work opportunities for many households," Feightner said.
“We know our labor force is stronger when parents can go to work knowing their kids are cared for and shift schedules and child care operating hours are compatible.”
The retirement of Baby Boomers shrank the labor pool, forcing employers to pay higher salaries to attract employees. Child care providers can't afford the increased payroll, and parents can't pay the increased costs. It's a circular nightmare nobody can escape.
Shaun Linton, owner of My Place Child Care in Newark since 2010, has 35 employees but needs 42 to reach full capacity. He has increased salaries but still finds it difficult to find workers.
“I have three classrooms right now that I just can’t open,” Linton said. “That would result in about 60 more spots.”
Some parents try working from home with their children. Others ask family members to provide child care. Some work part time. For many, none of it is sustainable.
Some of the 816 survey respondents reported waiting lists of six to 13 months to get their child into child care. They said the options are more limited in the evenings, on weekends or during the summer.
"The lack of reliable childcare centers in western Licking County is a problem," one respondent said. "When the kids were smaller, we had to go all the way to a center on Polaris, which was near my husband's job."
In the survey, 67% of working parents said it’s difficult to find child care, 56% said they have considered leaving their job due to child care needs and 46% have someone in their household unable to work full time due to child care demands.
The strained child care system has become further stressed with the influx of Intel, Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft in western Licking County, as the sudden surge in workers increases demand. That increase in workers will accelerate, as Intel expects 7,000 construction workers on site, followed by 3,000 employees and the potential for another 10,000 indirect jobs.
“When we’re thinking about the people coming into our community, whether it be from other parts of the state of Ohio or other parts of the country, they’re not going to have the same networks and same family system," Feightner said.
"We’re not going to be able to leverage having two parents, potentially, in the workforce. So, it’s really a missed opportunity for us as we experience this growth.”
Linton said very creative solutions will be needed because business can’t afford to do it all, and government can’t do it all either.
“Those reimbursement rates go nowhere near touching what is needed for operational costs,” Linton said. “Most of this workforce that’s coming in wants $15 to $20 an hour, and we’re nowhere near that. We’d probably need a 25% increase to base rates and realistically more like 35% increase to those rates. That’s a huge cost at the state level.
“We’ve got to do more, whether it’s to create new facilities, create more workforce. There’s got to be some different incentives to kind of sustain that need that’s going to be coming up in the next few years.”
Feightner referred to a November survey from Action for Children, a regional child care advocacy group, which showed 45% of Licking County child care providers’ monthly revenue does not cover their expenses, and 83% of those are not operating at full licensed capacity.
According to the survey, 76% of child care providers said it’s challenging or somewhat challenging to find staffing. There has been a 26% decline in the number of child care workers in Licking County from 2018 to 2023.
“Just saying child care is unaffordable is not the whole picture; understanding what our child care providers are facing is critical to being able to find a solution," Feightner said.
Working parents cannot exceed 145% of the federal poverty level and get child care assistance, which is the lowest eligibility for publicly funded child care in the country for children 5 and younger, Feightner said. The federal poverty level is $20,440 for family of two and $25,820 for a family of three.
One person who attended the meeting said some employees who receive public assistance have asked not to receive a pay raise because they would make too much money and lose their government assistance. They would have to reduce their hours.
Feightner, who began a new job Monday as director of business development at the Heath-Newark-Licking County Port Authority, said she became interested in child care issues after watching family and friends deal with them and seeing highly educated people, mostly women, forced to leave the workforce.
What does she hope follows the survey's release?
“Data is data and all we can do is move forward and try to be optimistic and hope our community will invest in our families and youngest residents," Feightner said. "We can only do so if we’re informed.”
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Licking County child care survey
- Respondent composition: 816 completed responses — 540 with children, 99 anticipate having children within five years; 75% employed; 11% students.
- Respondent employment: Education: 25.9%; finance: 17.8%; health care: 17.3%; other: 15.7%; government: 12.1%; nonprofit: 6.4%; manufacturing: 3.8%.
- Respondent children: Ages 0-3: 324; ages 4 and 5: 177; age 6-10: 277; ages 11-14: 72.
- Workforce impact: 67% found it difficult to find child care; 56% considered leaving job due to child care needs; 46% have someone in household unable to work full time due to child care demands.
- Child care affordability: Median weekly cost of child care per child: $200. Median desired weekly cost of child care per child: $140. Recommended weekly cost of child care, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, based on Licking County median income: $147.
- Child care demand: Households with children younger than 6: 8,639. Respondents with household member who cannot work full time: 46%. Family members who would work if they had child care: 60%. New child care positions needed: 3,815.
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