S2E2: How Should Society Invest in Childcare Workers?

To stay emotionally and financially afloat, many parents rely on childcare workers. Unfortunately, most working families cannot cover the high costs of childcare. And because this workforce is undervalued, the chances of finding an affordable childcare worker are slim.

In this episode, host Robert Espinoza talks to Julie Kashen, Director of Women's Economic Justice and a Senior Fellow, at The Century Foundation. They discuss the landscape of childcare workers, where policy has failed them, and how our society should invest in these workers.

What would happen to families everywhere if more than 5 million direct care and childcare workers in this country were to vanish overnight? Welcome to Season 2 of A Question of Care, a podcast that explores this question through different viewpoints and topics. I'm your host, Robert Espinoza, a national expert and frequent speaker on aging, long-term care, and the workforce. In this episode, we'll take an in-depth look at the role of childcare workers with our expert guest, Julie Kashen.

Julie Kashen: My name is Julie Kashen. I'm the director of Women's Economic Justice and a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a progressive nonpartisan think tank that works on equity issues.

Robert Espinoza: Julie, I don't think many people know all the responsibilities that a childcare worker takes on. Can you guide us through those responsibilities? What do they do in a day?

Julie Kashen: Absolutely. I think the first thing I want to start with is just some words from childcare workers or early educators that describe themselves, what they do, because I just think their words are more powerful than mine. So, Tasha Brown, who is an assistant director at preschool in Washington DC, says, “We are a child's first teacher. We are teaching them how to be kind citizens of the world.” And then Nancy Harvey, who I've had the chance to meet is a family childcare provider and an SEIU leader. She says, “We are called, educated, and trained to do this work because we're passionate about guiding children through their early developmental stages. We're doing our best to help them flourish.”

So, I just love that picture that paints of kind citizens of the world and helping them flourish. That is what most folks who are working in childcare are doing. In terms of their day-to-day, it can be everything from working with kids to teach them how to share, changing diapers for the really little ones, feeding. When my son was in a childcare program, one of my favorite things was when they would send us pictures throughout the day. So, communicating with parents and making sure there's an open line of communication. And basically, making sure that children have a warm, safe, and nurturing environment to foster their development.

Robert Espinoza: And in terms of demographics, who makes up the childcare workforce?

Julie Kashen: Yeah. So, the majority of folks who are in the childcare workforce are women. There's a disproportionate number of women of color. So, while the overall percentages are lower, it's about 15% black, 7% Hispanic, 56% white. But of the entire workforce, it is a larger amount of women of color who are in that workforce.

The other thing to note is the wages of these workers are particularly low. The last I checked is nearing $15 an hour, but that really depends on where you are. But, unfortunately, as in many sectors for black and Latino women, they're in the jobs that pay the lowest. And so, the demographics of the workforce are reflective of kind of this history that we have of assuming that women are going to take up the underpaid work of caregiving, and that women of color, in particular, are going to be a part of that.

Robert Espinoza: We often hear this phrase of “early educators and childcare workers,” and it seems that they're quite heterogeneous. They're working in a range of settings. I'm wondering if you can help us understand the differences between those early educator and childcare workers who are working in a school-based or institutional settings, from those that are working in private-pay arrangements in people's homes.

Julie Kashen: Yeah. And let me just start just to say I refer to anyone working in childcare as an “early educator” because children's brains are developing from the time they are born, and so anyone who's working with children is teaching them. Just at the same time that they might be changing diapers, or that they might be worrying about when the next feeding is supposed to happen, they're also helping their brains to develop. So, no matter what, if you're working with kids, you are an early educator. But in terms of the settings, there's this great concept, the Bainum Family Foundation and We Vision created this framework of four different categories.

So, it's early childhood education programs, and those could be school-based, center-based, or home-based. So, people will have multiple kids in their home running an actual program there, also called “family childcare.” And then there's trusted caregivers, which could be family, friend, neighbor, nanny. And so, if you think of it that way, the one thing they all have in common is that they are most likely underpaid. Most of them still don't have health insurance or retirement benefits, no matter where they are working, no matter what the setting is. But those who are working in a school, or a center, or sometimes, family childcare, have more camaraderie, they have support.

Sometimes they'll have more opportunities for professional development. Sometimes they'll have more opportunities just to take a break. There are some family childcare programs where it's really just one provider, the director of the program, and it's a lot on them all day, which is not that different than a nanny or somebody working one-on-one with kids. Whereas, in a program that has multiple staff members, there's kind of a different environment and a different vibe to it. And, in particular, nannies or people working out of a home are much more isolated and legally have fewer rights because of biases in our legal code.

Robert Espinoza: As you're describing these differences, it does dawn on me how many similarities there are between childcare workers and direct care workers, which our season of this podcast is exploring. I'm wondering if you can also talk about some challenges that you're seeing that are facing childcare workers. What are some of those challenges, both on the job and in their daily lives?

Julie Kashen: I think one of the biggest things is just being underpaid. This is one of the most valuable jobs you can do: caring for another human being, helping to shape young minds. This should be something that our society says is more important, to be honest, than playing the stock market, and yet we don't. And so what that means is that a lot of people working in childcare are living paycheck to paycheck. A lot of them are relying on nutrition benefits or other benefits from the government, which shouldn't be that way. And what is happening as a result is we're seeing staffing shortages because, over the last few years in particular, this is a long-standing problem, but in the last few years, wages have gone up for retail, for food service, and they've gone up less in the childcare profession. And so, if you're going to work in a low-wage job, you can decide, “Yes, I love working with children, I'd like to do that, but I can make more money flipping burgers or selling washing machines, and so I'm going to go do that instead.” And so, we're losing people to that.

Then what that means is that the folks who are still there providing childcare have an even harder time because they are doing it with fewer people, with less support. And we're hearing from a lot of childcare program directors right now that it is hard to hire at this moment, and so they're considering people for these jobs that they never would have considered before who maybe don't have as much of the experience or training or expertise, but because of the staffing shortages and the great need, they're being considered.

So, it's a real challenge, both for the people providing the care and for the programs that are trying to run this. And then for parents and kids too. It really has a ripple effect because, the reality is, for childcare, we're all in this together. It matters that parents want to rely on early educators to be partners in raising their kids. And early educators need parents' support, and so it kind of is a symbiotic relationship that everyone feels the challenges of when we're not investing enough in the sector.

Robert Espinoza: And it's stunning to me that workers who are so essential to our lives and the economy are so undervalued, it's such a baffling disconnect as a society. Your organization, the Century Foundation, and Caring Across Generations, which is a national nonprofit that looks at care from all angles, you recently issued a report card that graded every single state on a range of family policies, and also the extent to which those states have workers’ rights and protections. And the report card concluded that we have “a fragmented and insufficient system of care workers and families in most states.” More specifically, what did this report card uncover in regards to childcare workers and how states are responding?

Julie Kashen: Yeah. So, again, most childcare programs are not paying enough because they just don't have the money. And so much of that has to do with the fact that we rely on parents to pay, and really this should be treated as a public good. We have this market failure, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has called it a “textbook example of a market failure” that the childcare market is not meant to work. Parents are at the point where, when they have a kid, they're probably early in their career, many times they are, and so they're not making a lot of money. They haven't had 18 years to save for college.

So, this is the kind of thing where if you're relying on parents to pay wages and benefits, parents don't have enough money. So, the childcare workforce is not being paid well and is not receiving benefits, and that means that children aren't getting what they need. And so, what we found in our report card is that no state got an A across the board. And we looked at direct care also, we looked at home-based services, and long-term supports, and no state got an A. And that's not surprising because we know that we are living in a society where we do not have the care investments that America needs, that families need, and that would benefit our economy.

So, what we found, specifically around childcare workers, one thing we really looked at was the Child Development Associate certificate. It is helpful, and many states have requirements that childcare workers or early educators receive this kind of credential so that we know that they have some training on developmental practice and what is best for children. But one thing that we look at is also, do they help them pay for that to attain it as a state? And once you've attained it, do you make more money? And in most cases, the answer is no. And so, the situation is not at all what we would like it to be right now.

Robert Espinoza: As you mentioned earlier, Julie, this workforce is comprised primarily of women, women of color, and other people of color, immigrants, and often low wage. These are populations that have historically faced a range of challenges with employment and education and discrimination more broadly. How does this reality affect how childcare workers are treated by governments and by employers?

Julie Kashen: As you're noting, caregiving has long been this undervalued labor, and it has its origins in the institution of chattel slavery, where we forced black women to nurse and take care of children of white landowners without really regard to black women's children. And we are still kind of coming out of that horrible, horrible legacy. So, what that means is that we are not valuing caregiving. Even once slavery was outlawed, domestic workers were excluded from our basic labor rights and protections. So, we have this structural history in our laws that basically creates discrimination. And we've been working really hard, and if you look at the history of organizing, especially among black women, among domestic workers, there's this amazing story to tell.

There's so many amazing stories to tell of organizing and winning rights, but we're coming from such this deficit place, and there still is so much discrimination. And so, I think one thing that I'm heartened by in recent years is that we've started to reimagine. We've started to imagine what it could look like if instead of this history of discrimination, we create this new world where we value care, where we value the people who provide care, where we pay them adequately, where we say, “This is an important job, you need dignity, you need respect, and you need to be able to pay your bills.” And I think we're getting there, but we have a little way to go.

Robert Espinoza: Absolutely. And it does seem, at least in my experience, that when people of influence begin caring about care and the policies that support it, that it's often because they themselves are dealing with a challenge in their homes and in their families, and they realize that the system is fractured. It's unaffordable, it's inconsistent, it's confusing on both sides of the age spectrum. I think it's something that, hopefully, more and more people will realize needs a big solution. Julie, in this season of A Question of Care, we're asking all of our guests to imagine what our society would look like if care workers were not around. As you think about that question, how do you think society would change if there were no childcare workers?

Julie Kashen: Yeah. I want to just get back to what you were saying before, and then I will answer that question. One thing we noticed is that the people who are in power, the members of Congress who are our champions for these issues, are the ones who've lived it themselves. You've got Senator Patty Murray, who ran as the mom in tennis shoes. She was a preschool teacher, and now she is one of the biggest childcare champions. You have Elizabeth Warren, who went through it herself. You have the new dad's caucus. So, we have people who have this lived experience of care, who are the champions for the policies we need. And I think that makes a big difference, and that also is one of the things that gives me hope.

So now, talking about what does society look like if there were no childcare workers, unfortunately, it's not that far from reality. We don't have enough childcare workers, and we don't have enough childcare. So, right now, more than half of Americans live in a community where there's just not enough childcare slots or people to provide care.

So, that means that we kind of know what this looks like. What it looks like without care workers is that parents, usually mothers, have to leave their jobs, reduce their work hours. If there are two parents, they often do tag-team parenting where mom works during the day, dad works at night. There's always someone around, but the family doesn't actually get quality time together, which I think is far from what the American dream has promised us. And I think, for those who can afford to not work right or reduce their hours, there are many families who don't have that choice. They've got to pay the bills, and so that means that they piecemeal it.

They are relying on family, friend, and neighbor. Sometimes they'll have to call out sick. But because our workplaces have not been built with this in mind, and our public policies have not been built for caregivers, that means that sometimes that can have a negative impact on child well-being because they're not with a consistent adult. That can have a negative impact on a parent's career because that they are not able to commit to being there all the time, they're disrupted by child care. And it also has an effect on our economy. Employers lose. There was one study that showed $23 billion a year because of childcare disruptions. And that's not good for anyone. Parents don't want to be disrupted, they want to be showing up and doing their jobs. But without adequate childcare, they just can't rely on that. So, I think this idea of “what if there were no childcare workers,” is, sadly, something that many people live with every day.

Robert Espinoza: Thank you for that. It is a really grim picture. And I think about all my friends when they have children, the panic that sets in when they realize in those moments how nearly impossible it will be to live the life they were living before they had the child because of this kind of general lack of childcare workers in many spaces. Julie, can we talk a little bit about interventions and solutions? Several years ago, from 2014 to 2017, you were the Policy Director of a three-year Make It Work campaign. And, in this role, you drafted a visionary childcare proposal whose principles were later incorporated into the Child Care for Working Families Act. What was the campaign trying to accomplish, and what are some of the solutions that still need implementing from that act?

Julie Kashen: When we started the Make It Work campaign, the idea was that we expected there to be a woman running for president, and Hillary did run. And that if that was the case, we wanted to make sure that she was running on women's issues and the issues that affect women more. And so, we put out a bold agenda that included childcare, paid family and medical leave. We had principles around long-term supports and services. We thought about how care workers should be treated. And had this vision that, if we could put out these bold ideas, and also go talk to people in key states like Nevada and Iowa about their real experiences and help them see the connections between their individual lives and public policy and voting, that that would make a difference. And so, we would talk to folks in Las Vegas, Nevada, we had organizers out on doors, and just say, “How are you making it work?” And we would hear from people their stories about how challenging it was, how challenging it was not having childcare.

And one of the things we'd be able to do, especially because we had a c4 [501(c)(4)], which is a political entity that was part of it, we were able to say, “Well, you can vote on that, a) You're not alone, you're in community with many people who are having the same experience as you are, and, b) This is something we can solve. So, here's how to vote on that.” And so, it really was very compelling to be able to tie our policy ideas with the on-the-ground lived experience of so many people and make that connection. And then, when Hillary was running, she did end up adopting some of these childcare ideas, and to say, I drafted it with the help and contributions of many, many, many partners. And was very, very lucky to have so many smart people who were thinking about this and wanting to come up with visionary ideas.

And, ultimately, a lot of the ideas we had were: we need a public investment, we needed to… Right now in the United States, we have something called the Child Care Development Block Grant. So, this is the childcare program we have, it goes to every state, but it is so severely underfunded that about [only] one in every nine eligible young children actually have access to it. So, that means we have a program, but it's only working for a very small fraction of people. It also is only working for a small fraction of providers because it doesn't reimburse them enough for the work that they are doing or to pay better. So, it's a great program for those it serves and helps, but it is not enough.

And so, our vision was, let's have a guarantee where there's enough federal dollars for everyone. Let's acknowledge that this is a middle-class issue too, and make sure that there's a program that works for both low-income and middle-class families all together in one. And let's include provisions that say you have to raise wages, you have to pay better, and that's going to come out of the public offers because parents can't afford it, so let's pay for it.

So, that was kind of the basic principles, and ultimately, those are also the principles that got into the Build Back Better Act. And that actually passed the House of Representatives, but not the Senate. So, we saw huge progress in these ideas that this should be a public good, that there should be public investment, that middle-class families also need support, that early educators need to be paid better. We moved the needle a lot, but there's still so much to do because it didn't make it past the finish line.

Robert Espinoza: Absolutely. It does seem like we're making significant progress, and yet there's still so much to cover, the ongoing work that drives so many people who are working in the care sector. I'm curious, a lot of this might have to do with the narrative that society shapes around childcare and childcare work. How would you strengthen the public narrative on childcare work to finally achieve the kinds of investments that you're describing?

Julie Kashen: I think we need to dream bigger. I think we need to keep imagining what's possible. Can we think about what if there were a childcare program that was free to families, that was paid for with public funds, where early educators were paid well. And it was in every community, and you could just count on that. And that those programs really worked for every family because there was a diversity thinking about cultural needs, thinking about children with disabilities, and what their needs are, and there was enough money in the system to support everyone.

I think we need to start imagining what's possible. Instead of starting out where we are, instead of leaning into the problems, the challenges, if we can dream about what we want to create in the world, what we want to see possible in the world, I think we can start to build closer to it and lead with kind of those shared values, lead with love, and compassion, and community, and connection, and all these things that are innately a part of us, but we forget somewhere along the way. And if you think about kids, kids have that natural wonder, that natural curiosity. My son makes friends everywhere he goes. And I think there's a point where you kind of get cynical, or you lose that. And I think if we could bring that childhood wonder and imagining into our vision for childcare and the way we think and talk about it, I think that would make the difference.

Robert Espinoza: Absolutely. And Julie, in the spirit of dreaming big, I want to ask you one last question, which is: if you could wave a magic wand and implement one significant change that would support childcare workers and really transform the system, what would it be?

Julie Kashen: I think we need a trillion dollars over 10 years to pay for childcare. The bottom line is: it's money. It's expensive to do this well, but it's more expensive not to. And so, we have money when we want it, when we have the political will to fund our military. We have the political will to give corporate tax breaks, and it's time to have political will to invest in our children and the people who care for them.

Robert Espinoza: Julie's closing wish is an astute one. The inadequate financing system behind long-term care and childcare is the primary reason these jobs remain poverty level. In long-term care, Medicaid serves as the primary public payer, yet it's an increasingly strained system. It's also politically contested in states that are ideologically opposed to this crucial program. In fact, most analyses of state-to-state policies find that those states with weaker Medicaid investments also have worse jobs in direct care.

The poor quality of these jobs drives workers away from the sector, leaving millions of jobs unfilled and people unsupported. Unsurprisingly, advocates for older adults and people with disabilities increasingly cite workforce challenges as their primary concern. Short of a transformative, large-scale solution to these problems, many employers and states are offering support such as talent pipelines, retention measures like bonuses, or transportation stipends, and technology supports, yet they have a modest to minuscule effect on the staffing crisis.

While other workforce interventions may offer some relief, what we truly need is a substantial government investment in long-term care. This would not only significantly improve care worker compensation, but it would enhance their training, their career progression, and overall job quality. The policies we advance as a country should reflect our priorities, not just what seems feasible. Until we commit to a better care system, we will all bear the brunt of the consequences. The costs we avoid today become the cost we pay for tomorrow.

Thank you to my guest, Julie Kashen, and to you, our listeners. If you enjoyed this episode of A Question of Care, please share it on your social channels and stay tuned for future episodes. This podcast was produced by me, Robert Espinoza, in partnership with Modry Media. Please make sure to rate and review the podcast wherever you're listening.