WASHINGTON — The White House is making the case for more government support for child care programs in a new economic report, drawing on extensive research to say additional spending would improve kids' lives, increase the quality of early childhood schooling and enable more women to hold jobs.
The analysis dovetails with President Joe Biden's political messaging as ideological lines are being drawn for the 2024 election. Democrats have sought to put a greater focus on Republican lawmakers who have restricted access to abortions in the wake of last year's Supreme Court decision and called for mandating that impoverished parents be employed in order to receive government aid.
The White House Council of Economic Advisers put together the analysis on child care as part of its broader annual economic report of the president. This year's 513-page report, released Monday, also explores the financial dangers created by climate change, global partnerships, reforms to make college more accessible, the online economy, crypto currencies and ways to add workers to the U.S. economy that include increased levels of immigration.
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The administration is making a fuller case that its policies are better for overall economic growth, not just in terms of social fairness. That applies to international trade and the shift toward renewable energy sources, but programs aimed at children tend to produce long-term benefits that more than cover their price tags.
"The president's approach is that we need to be investing in our children, because we know that pays for itself multiple times over," Cecilia Rouse, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, said in an interview.
Rouse added that government support for child care would help ensure a "robust labor force" because parents are often prevented from working due to its costs. Child care expenses can overwhelm their earnings, meaning that parents are better off staying unemployed or working part-time even if doing so can diminish their long-term earning potential. This reflects a problem in the U.S. economy that the private sector has been unable to fix on its own, leading to the Biden administration's push for greater government involvement.
The analysis draws on studies showing that each dollar invested in early childhood education can produce a return of $7 to $12, if not more. The spending increases the likelihood of kids staying in school and staying employed as adults, which helps to boost economic growth, reduce crime and eventually lower their reliance on government programs. A recent study cited in the analysis shows that the benefits are intergenerational and extend to the children of those who received child care.
The analysis also addresses the market failures with child care in the U.S. Not only is it expensive, but workers at child care centers are often paid so poorly that many of them leave their jobs and cause a shortage of available support. The latest Labor Department data shows that child care workers earn $17.95 an hour, about 36% less than the average non-supervisory worker in the U.S. economy.
This analysis recommends greater government funding to make child care more affordable for families and also to raise the pay of workers in that sector, which would help to improve the quality of the care.
Many Republicans are skeptical about the benefits of more government aid for child care, which they have criticized for being part of a cultural agenda instead of a financial one.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has argued that deficit reduction would be the better policy choice because it could help families by lowering inflation. When the Commerce Department recently announced that large computer chip manufacturers needed to offer affordable child care as part of receiving government aid, some Republican senators accused the Biden administration of social engineering.
The Biden administration has portrayed those objections as a red herring, saying that investments in child care and renewing the lapsed child tax credit — it was temporarily expanded as part of his coronavirus relief legislation — would boost growth.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has told Congress that the loss of abortion rights will hurt the economic prospects of women. And in his State of the Union address last month, the president said his social policies are also focused on the economy.
"Let's also make sure working parents can afford to raise a family with sick days, paid family and medical leave, and affordable child care that will enable millions more people to go to work," Biden said. "And by the way, when we do all of these things, we increase productivity. We increase economic growth."
About 1 in 3 child care workers are going hungry
About 1 in 3 child care workers are going hungry
Of the nearly 1 million child care workers in the United States, my colleagues and I found in a recent white paper that 31.2%—basically one out of every three—experienced food insecurity in 2020, the latest year for which we analyzed data. Food insecurity means there is a lack of consistent access to enough food. This rate of food insecurity is anywhere from eight to 20 percentage points higher than the national average.
In Washington and Texas, one study found 42% of child care workers experienced food insecurity, with 20% of child care workers experiencing very high food insecurity. High food insecurity is when a person reports reduced quality and variety of diet. Very high food insecurity occurs when a person reports disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake.
Another study in Arkansas found that 40% of child care workers experienced food insecurity.
Effects of food insecurity
People who are food insecure are at increased chances of being in poor health, with conditions like hypertension, diabetes, asthma, arthritis, and depression, among other chronic diseases and health conditions.
Low wages and food insecurity may contribute to child care workers’ high stress levels. When child care workers experience stress, they tend to reduce the amount of positive attention to children and increase their punitive responses to children’s challenging behavior.
Causes of food insecurity
Overall, child care workers’ wages are low, with the median hourly wage being $12.24 per hour. This means child care workers make little more than fast-food workers, whose median pay is $11.64 per hour. What child care workers make is not considered a living wage.
Low wages meant more than 53% of child care workers from 2014 to 2016 received public assistance, including Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This compares with the 21% of elementary and middle school teachers who received public assistance in that period. When so many child care workers rely on public assistance, it reveals how many of them don’t make enough money to get by.
Nearly all U.S. child care workers are women, and half are people of color. This workforce is central to providing high-quality early childhood education to children up to 5 years old.
Early childhood researchers and policymakers have focused on increasing the education and training of the child care workforce to bolster quality. The Center for the Study of Child Care Employment recommends that lead teachers, the primary teachers in early childhood classrooms who are responsible for the day-to-day management of a classroom, at least have a bachelor’s degree and that assistant teachers at least have a child development associate certificate or equivalent. Despite the fact that the more education child care workers have the higher-quality care they deliver, many states require only a high school diploma or equivalent, and some states do not have any education requirements for entry-level positions.
On average, child care workers who have a bachelor’s degree do make more than those who don’t. However, going to college doesn’t pay off as much for child care workers as it does for those in other fields. Child care workers with a bachelor’s degree average $14.70 per hour, which is just under half the average earnings overall of those with a bachelor’s degree—$27 per hour.
It’s one thing to expect child care workers to get more education to become better at what they do. But it is also important to ensure that additional education pays off.
Policymakers have recently focused on child care workers’ wages. For example, the Build Back Better legislation would raise payment rates to meet the cost of care for children from birth to 5 years old. The cost of care would include wages.
