Earlier this week the The Wall Street Journal reported on new legislation that would require parents to pay caregivers overtime for more than an 8-hour workday, and would mandate at least one day off per week along with holidays and sickdays. On its face this seems like perfectly reasonable policy that any thoughtful, liberal-minded person would support.
But this new proposal drives right into one of the greatest conundrums affecting working families today. While caregivers in general make very little money and are often without benefits, childcare costs represent a large piece of family budgets. The National Association of Childcare Resource and Referral Agencies estimates that care represents roughly 15% of family budgets; they point out that infant care costs more in 43 states than tuition at a public college.
I fully support giving childcare providers the same workers rights that most corporate employees receive. And yet I understand very well that even a few thousand additional dollars in childcare expenses are prohibitive for working families. What happens when a family needs their caregiver to work more than an 8-hour day — as most who commute do? What about parents who need 7-day a week coverage? How about parents who need to work holidays?
I suspect that, despite the prevailing image of families that need this kind of care, we are not for the most part talking about the over-privileged. More likely the legislation will profoundly affect middle class families who can’t find or afford high quality daycare, so are piecing together coverage with a sitter. I get the sense that some of the commenters on the WSJ article think that those who use individual sitters are the elite — not so.
The irony of daycare is that, while it’s a cheaper and better solution for working families, it also is virtually inaccessible for large numbers of those same families. First, there just aren’t enough high-quality center-based programs, particularly for children under a year old. Second, most centers have set hours that may or may not match parents’ working hours. If a center runs from 8:00am to 5:30pm, for example, but a parent has to commute, it’s almost impossible (not to mention incredibly stressful) for that parent to be a pick-up on time.
So parents have to turn to nanny care. For many this is the first time they have managed people in their home, and maybe at all. These families want to be fair, but they are struggling to make ends meet themselves. They don’t, as Sue Shellenbarger suggest in her WSJ column, have the choice to give up a sitter in favor of a better option.
The good news is that there are legislative, social welfare, and even business solutions that could make a meaningful difference towards meeting the needs of domestic workers and the families they support, starting with more high-quality, center-based daycare. I support the legislation reported on by The Wall Street Journal, but I wish it addressed the problem more holistically, with an understanding that it isn’t the government or some great corporate entity or even just rich people who are paying for extra benefits — it’s working families.
The worst part of this kind of legislation, built in something of a vacuum to protect one vulnerable group against another, is that it pits activists against parents when the two groups should be working together to find comprehensive solutions. In this case, I get the sense that those working on behalf of domestic workers see the parents as wealthy and capable of providing better benefits. Parents’ hackles are raised because, while in theory most agree that domestic workers deserve better, in practice working families are being squeezed financially in so many other ways that they can’t make ends meet.
I continue to believe that childcare is one of the cornerstone issues of our time. It speaks to family policy, to workforce development, to economic security — but it also speaks very directly to women’s advancement in the workplace. For all of the gender equity programs out there, nothing would do more to get women in top jobs than providing comprehensive, high-quality, accessible and affordable childcare.
Related links:
- Claudia Deutsch writes about the catch 22 of New York’s nanny law at TrueSlant.
- This article from New York Magazine offers a domestic worker’s perspective on what the legislation means.
- Interesting post from Jenny Q. Public on the impact of the proposed nanny legislation on working families.
- New York’s public radio station, WNYC, reports on a group of domestic workers who are advocating for better benefits in that state.
Oh TMB, so true. So true. One interesting roadblock to resolving the child care conundrum is gaining sustaining momentum in the movement.
Long ago, when I first entered the work+life field, I had the privilege of working with one of the country’s leading experts on child care. She studied and advocated for change from all angles–corporate, government, community.
One day I walked into her office fuming about “Every parent needs to demand that the government and employers get together and create affordable solutions. I don’t get what the problem is (at this point I had no children).” She smiled a knowing smile of a veteran from the trenches and said, “First, parents themselves still suffer from a great deal of ambivalence about using care even if they have no choice but to work. It’s as if by advocating for it, they are admitting they use it. So it’s hard gaining enough momentum. Second, most parents lose the fire in the belly about the subject after they stop needing it. So how do you sustain a movement when every 10 years you lose your passionate advocates and a new group steps up but starts from square one?”
You are right, the lack of reliable affordable child care makes absolutely zero sense not even from a business perspective. The ROI of child care for employers in terms of productivity, reduced absenteeism, etc. is off the charts. Yet, there’s no corporate commitment to develop on a broad scale.
So, here’s the challenge: Any parent who is ambivalent about their use of child care needs to get over it and admit they use it and work to improve availability. And two, those of us who are moving out of the years when we need child care need to remember what it was like to scramble and pray it all hangs together somehow. And we need to stay engaged in the effort.
Great post, on a very important topic TMB.
Best,
Cali
this is a very interesting topic i find it very inconvienant for the working parent that legislation is tying to pass a law that would make it even harder for a working mother to find childcare on a holiday as if its not hard enough to begin with, i personally have had great luck with this company called taskrabit.com , they allow you to post your task whether it be babysitting or needing a ride somewhere and background checked runners go do your task for you at a price you set, its great if your a working parent looking for a last minute babysitter hope this helps
Yes. I’ve had to piece together a hodgepodge of chidcare situations for my toddler daughter, and it’s brutal. Right now she has a weekly mix of daycare and babysitter. I’m lucky that I was able to secure a 2-day/week spot at our local, high-quality daycare, but it’s costing me $941/month (and I would send her there full time, if only they had the space!). Not exactly a steal of a deal. Our babysitter works 9 hour days for $12.50/hour. This hourly rate is considered low for our area. I allow our sitter to bring her 2-year old daughter to work with her, and I do pay for holiday and vacation days, but I don’t currently pay overtime for the ninth hour. I’m trying to make it work for all involved, but it’s very tight. Once I cover benefits and day care costs, I’m left with less with $200 in take home pay. It only makes sense because my husband owns his own business and we need the benefits that come with my job. We’d like to have a second child, but there’s no way we could possibly cover childcare for two.
I strongly agree that nannies deserve to be paid more for the work they do, but this type of legislation is likely to have a negative impact on both nannies and working families.
This legislation may lead more families to try to save money on childcare by paying a nanny “off the books.” There is certainly no shortage of caregivers willing to work for cash – and this includes both immigrants without work authorization and U.S. citizens; this is the primary force that drives down nanny salaries and penalizes those honest nannies (and families) who pay their taxes.
Ahh the childcare conundrum. Oh how I have found myself in this situation many, many times! I work from home now and still continue to have childcare issues. People often assume that if you work from home you don’t need childcare (my ex husband seemed to think childcare wasn’t necessary since I was home. He seemed to forget about the “working” part.) It is extremely stressful on working parents to have to figure out childcare. People also think that once children are of school age these problems go away. They don’t. In fact, they simply change. Now it becomes about finding before or after-school care, and coverage on holidays, vacations, summer and inclement weather days. I would love to see a more holistic overall approach to improving childcare for all families. It truly is a larger issue that affects more than just the parents.
I wish I had the policy expertise to comment on the likely outcome of laws like this. But I would like everyone to remember that caregivers very often are working parents. And, at $12.50 or $10 or $15 or even $20 an hour, they can’t afford any decent childcare at all.
The caregivers at our excellent daycare center usually can’t afford to send their kids there. Their own kids are in the sometimes iffy situations known as “family, friends, and neighbors” care.
Excellent post.
And excellent comments- particularly @Cali’s comment. My husband and I have often commented about how the time when you are most aware of the problems facing working parents is the time when you have the least spare time to try to do anything about it. I have considered writing my older self a letter, but haven’t even found the time for that. Maybe my blog will serve that function for me.
I’m fairly lucky- we can afford high quality day care, and have a spot in a place that is not far from where we work. We both work in the same general area of town, so we can split drop off and pick up duties, allowing us to stagger our schedules and only need 8 hours/day of day care (although the center is open from 7-6, I think, we only use from about 9 to 5). In short, we have everything that I could ask for, and I still shudder a bit when I write the check for our monthly day care bill. I am deeply bothered by the knowledge that my situation is a privilege bought with money that many families do not have.
I really think that the best solution is to provide a subsidy and apply it on a sliding scale. but I also think that this is unlikely to happen in the US, because too many people think that working mothers are upsetting the natural order of things or some such nonsense, so we can’t even really have a rational discussion about the issue. So instead, we get women giving up careers they love because the pay doesn’t cover child care, and families having to settle for child care that is of lower quality. And we’re supposed to believe that these policies are part of a “family first” ideology. It boggles the mind.
Thorn in my side, this childcare business. It makes the whole work life fit a constant game of battleship for me. I expend a great deal of energy strategizing and timing things and generally hysterical because, well, empirically, my career is at the mercy of daycare. I may or may not be working a fourth day a week come September. It all depends on whether they can find it in there hearts to open a spot for my younger son. My older son is all set. So, I wait.
We have had one or both of our daughters in an at-home-state-licensed daycare provider for 8 years. It’s a good situation, although not ideal.
We have never paid overtime nor vacations/holidays. That being said, if our daycare provider is going on vacation or taking a day off we have to make other arrangements or take a vacation day…which isn’t easy.
As has already been stated, our professional lives revolve around our daycare situation. If I must stay late at the office, I pick-up the kids and bring them back with me. I have a drawer stashed with crayons and other items to keep them busy while I finish up work. Fortunately, I work for a family-friendly company that understands that working parents must have work/life balance.
With so many working families barely making it financially, an increase in daycare costs could create an environment where both parents can’t afford to work. If fewer parents work, then the demand for daycare goes down.
My daycare provider is a single mom who needs her job to support her family. She depends on our jobs so that she can have a job. Neither one of us want the government interfering with that relationship…it could potentially put BOTH of us out of a job!
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What gets me about this legislation is that the vast majority of parents pay off the books. The government should go after these people first, rather than add regulations on those who are paying payroll taxes, workers comp and disability benefits, etc. Because, hello, if you’re already breaking the law by not registering your nanny as a household employee, why on earth would you suddenly hold yourself to all these new rules?
This is a great post. Childcare is a major issue.
Question: What about all the grandparents out there who are regularly moonlighting to provide care for their grandchildren (grandmothers in particular, I think, who work regular jobs, take care of their own homes and husbands, and provide regular child care for grandchildren)? I want to read an article about that.
Also, check out this fantastic op-ed by called “Pay Your Nanny on the Books” by Mona Simpson in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/opinion/02simpson.html?_r=1
This childcare/domestic worker issue has been around for a long long time.
Keep up the good work, TMB!
Have you looked in to an au pair. I am the coordinator for the Rehoboth Beach, DE and surrounding areas. The cost averages out to about $350 per week for all children in the family. One big advantage is not having to drag your kids out the door in the wee hours of the morning. It is a cultural exchange program where the young women and some men live here and become part of a family and take care of the children. They are allowed to work up to 45 hours per week or 10 hours per day. It works really well for flex schedule parents who might have a few nights to work. There are several doctors in my group and their schedules can change as they are hospital physicians. Please feel free to ask questions if you are interested.