OLYMPIA, Wash. — Plagued by high costs, long waitlists, and near-minimum wage pay for workers, families, and children rallied at the Washington State Capitol Wednesday, urging lawmakers to address the childcare issues they call a crisis.
“I think there is a childcare crisis in all of Washington,” said Kim, a mother living in Port Angeles, “I flat out could not find childcare for my one-year-old.”
Kim encountered waitlists, facilities she wasn’t comfortable with, more expensive daycares than she was expecting, and locations that weren’t feasible for her to reach. The lack of options meant she had to quit her job, a career that had a successful start after she earned her MBA.
“I could not find care for my son and I started to meet more and more parents in my position, especially women at the playground who are mothers who used to work and had to stop,” Kim said.
According to an ECONorthwest study, 40% of parents have had to make a similar choice as Kim or were fired because of childcare issues.
That study found that 74% of parents have had some issue with childcare, whether it be cost, quality, or availability. That has led parents to miss an average of five days, costing the state $6.9 Billion.
“The childcare workforce is the workforce that underpins every other workforce in the community, so we are all impacted by childcare whether we have children or not,” Kim said.
The childcare workforce faces its struggles as well, with wages at or close to minimum wage.
“I don’t want to be forced with that decision: What I love isn’t livable for me, but I want to do it,” said Kameko Jones, a childcare teacher on Whidbey Island.
In a somewhat rural area, childcare is hard to come by. Kameko’s facility has a two-year waitlist. Staffing is preventing them from expanding.
“We always worry that we’re not going to be able to keep up with the demand of childcare because there is a huge demand for it,” Jones said, “We can’t expand like we need to because we can’t get in the workers because they just can’t afford to live on those wages.”
The average cost for childcare in Washington is $14,355, costing an average of 18% of people’s income.
“As we have it right now, providers could not be making any less but families can’t be paying any more,” Kim said.
There are a series of fixes being proposed in the state legislature to address the issues.
One bill would create a board that will establish minimum training standards and minimum pay for childcare workers. Another would increase the subsidies to both childcare facilities and families.
For Families, it calls to raise the qualifying wage from 65% of the area’s median income to 75%, about $91,000 for a family of four.
For providers, currently, they are reimbursed at a rate based on market averages, the bill calls for basing reimbursement on the actual cost providers face.
In Governor Bob Ferguson’s proposed budget, he calls for a $100 million investment in childcare, but amid a budget shortfall estimated to be at least $12 billion over the next four years, it falls short of the requests in those bills.
Instead, the only increase in his budget would increase the subsidy for families making 75% of AMI, only if one parent works for a small business.