Tackling a top workforce barrier - Family care demands that pull employees from their jobs
| Employers say they need to keep and attract good people. However, employees report that inadequate support for taking care of children and aging family members are forcing them to miss work, reduce productivity or even leave the workforce. On March 12, WV Forward held the second in a series of strategic meetings to address availability, expenses and other causes for lack of caregiving options for children and older adults. How can we do a better job supporting workers who want to remain in their jobs? We must address the high cost (between $7,000 -$8,000 per child annually), long wait lists for infant and elder care, service deserts in rural areas, lack of shift work options, complicated regulatory burdens and broken profit models that cause many centers to close. |
National leaders agree that the time has come to address childcare challenges.
Just this week, White House advisor Ivanka Trump rolled out a child care initiative. According to NPR reporting, Ivanka Trump said, “You have care providers who are working at below poverty wages, you have parents who can't afford the care and you don't have a robust ecosystem of facilities because it's a low-margin business with high liability. So, it's a fundamentally flawed system.” |