Chamber aims to understand impact of child care issues on workforce

Exacerbated by the recent pandemic, some Oklahoma City-area businesses, like many others across the state and nation, are having trouble finding and retaining enough workers. Some of the reasons, they say, are the high cost and lack of available child care services.

Recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found the child care sector is nearly 10% smaller than it was three years ago. That adds up to about 100,000 fewer child care workers nationwide. Typically, jobs at child care facilities pay about $13 an hour. Workers can earn more at fast food restaurants, gas stations and grocery stores.

Kim Wilmes, vice president of economic development programs at the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, said in addition to the Chamber hearing about child care issues impacting local companies, it is also a factor that some new-to-market, prospective companies consider when evaluating whether to establish operations in Oklahoma City.

To more fully understand the impact child care has on the Oklahoma City workforce, the Chamber has partnered with Cathy O’Connor from Coalign Group and Carrie Williams from Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness to conduct a child care research study, including a quantitative survey in both English and Spanish that will hopefully shed some light on this important topic. Their research will also include data gleaned from various qualitative focus groups.

“We need more people back into the labor force,” Wilmes said. “Parents are not going back (to work) due to child care, but we don’t exactly know why. If we don’t know the reasons, then we won’t know what solutions are really going to help alleviate the problem and get more people back into the workforce faster.”

Making matters worse, the cost of child care keeps going up, forcing many parents to decide between working or staying home with their children. In a recent Fortune article, the author told the stories of several women who made that choice because it would have cost them at least 25% of their paychecks to pay for child care. Wilmes said she has even heard of parents turning down a promotion because it would have placed them in a higher income bracket and, therefore, disqualify them for child care subsidies.

“It is preventing a lot of people who want to work from working,” Wilmes said. “It’s also stopping them from excelling in their job, which could change the whole trajectory of their life and their child’s life, but they’re not doing it because of child care issues.”

Wilmes said the initial goal of the study is to better understand concerns and build awareness about the problems.

“It will take the entire community working together to begin resolving some of the issues,” she said.

The English version of the survey has already closed; however, a Spanish version is still open until May 12th for those who live or work in Oklahoma City and currently use/need child care or plan to in the near future, Wilmes said. One response per household. All responses are anonymous. To complete the survey, visit surveymonkey.com/r/B7QMBZG.

This article originally appeared in the May edition of the VeloCity newsletter.