By Jackie Mader, The Hechinger Report, November 3, 2021
At Aliya Johnson Roberts’ two child care centers in Philadelphia, many employees aren’t done working when they clock out at the end of a long day nurturing and teaching young kids. Instead of heading home, they leave for second jobs, often as home health aides. The grueling schedule is necessary: Without the extra work, they can’t make enough money to cover their basic needs, Johnson Roberts said. She wants to pay her teachers more, but is stymied by the same issue plaguing child care providers nationwide: A staff shortage. She can’t find enough teachers to open up all the classrooms in her two centers, which means there’s not enough money coming in to substantially boost salaries.
Rochelle Wilcox, in New Orleans, said her employees face a similar situation. She estimates that up to 50 percent of her staff members are working a second job to make ends meet — driving for Uber, delivering groceries, and pulling overnight shifts at local hotels. As owner of the child care center, Wilcox isn’t much better off. For years, she wasn’t even making enough money to pay herself.
Over the last 18 months, the nation has come to understand how fractured and broken its child care system truly is. Now, a recently released report is shedding light on the plight of child care workers, whose well-being hangs in balance as Congress considers legislation that could boost the industry. These workers are experiencing pronounced difficulties paying for basic needs, according to the report released by the University of Oregon’s RAPID-EC project, a bi-weekly survey that has been tracking the experiences of caregivers and families with young children during the pandemic.
Comments (0)