For businesses of all sizes, on-site child care has become the latest — and often, priciest — new way to attract and keep employees.
Pinched by a worsening child-care crisis, employers around the country are opening day-care centers in unexpected places: at a chicken-processing plant in Tennessee, an airport in Pennsylvania and a Wisconsin charter school.Spam-maker Hormel is building a $5 million child-care facility in Austin, Minn. Medical services company VGM Group is converting 8,000 square feet of office space into a day care in Waterloo, Iowa.
“We have struggled to get enough people to work with us and stay with us,” said Garrett Dolan, who works in human resources for the company. “That got us thinking: We’re in a child-care desert, there’s nothing available. We’re going to have to build this thing ourselves.” It makes business sense, too. Employers lose an estimated $23 billion a year because of child care-related complications, resulting in a $122 billion hit to the U.S. economy, according to a recent study from ReadyNation. The group, part of the bipartisan Council for a Strong America, found that the pandemic and “insufficient policy action” have significantly worsened access to child care around the country.
“I had five employees who were about to have babies, asking if they could go part-time or take a year off,” he said. “And now that’s just not a concern anymore.”The U.S. job market has undergone massive shifts in recent years as Americans rethink their career plans and prioritize work-life balance. Many quit in-person work early in the pandemic, leaving fields such as education, retail and hospitality in favor of more flexible, higher-paying office jobs.
“The reality is, most parents have a variety of care needs, so one solution isn’t enough,” he said. “No matter what your schedule is, what your income is, child care is a key necessity for a parent to be able to stay active and employed. The brutal reality for working parents is: No child care, no work.”
Both Trudi and Ben Shertzer work at the airport — and now their son Hunter, 11 months, goes to work with them, too.
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