The impact of increasing access to child care in West Virginia
What would be the potential economic impact to increasing child care services in West Virginia?
If West Virginia were able to increase the percentage of children in paid child care by 4.7 percent, 4,000 people would be released into the labor force, generating a direct, indirect and induced economic impact of nearly $300 million. That would rise West Virginia from 50th to 45th in the country, equal to Kentucky.
WV Forward has partnered with the Benedum Foundation and the WVU Bureau of Business and Economic Research to research these findings.