Employers across industries continue to struggle to find talent, and access to affordable, quality child care is one barrier to work that has become even more pronounced during the pandemic. Five counties recently partnered with the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Center for Customized Research and Services on a study aimed at identifying solutions and gathering data that could help lead to grant funding.
Calumet, Dodge, Fond du Lac, Outagamie and Winnebago counties collaborated on the study. Each county provided a list of its top 30 businesses in terms of number of employees, and those employers encouraged their workers to complete the survey.
Lisa McArthur, director of economic and workforce outreach for Envision Greater Fond du Lac, says the five counties saw an opportunity to come together to apply for the second round of Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. Workforce Innovation Grants, which opened in late February and favor collaborative solutions.
“It’s a systemic issue. Something needs to change at the top, and it needs to filter down to the average parent or family that has two kids or maybe more that are going to day care,” she says, adding that child care is often unaffordable to a worker who may only be making $12 per hour.
The partnering counties face a variety of challenges and circumstances, McArthur says. For example, Dodge County lacks brick-and-mortar facilities, while Fond du Lac County has facilities, but 50% of early childhood education classrooms are empty due to insufficient staffing.
Jeffrey Sachse, director of the UW-Oshkosh CCRS, says the survey drew nearly 1,800 responses and provided a good sampling of employers of all sizes. While he and the center are still working through results, Sachse says some trends have emerged. One major one is a misalignment between workday hours and operating hours of child care centers, with many respondents reporting difficulty finding care if they needed to work later in the day or a weekend day.
“Location isn’t as much of an issue as availability is. People would be willing to travel within reason to find more service but simply can’t find the service during the days and times that they need it,” he says.
Sachse says the five participating counties face some particular challenges. For example, many of the counties include rural communities, which offer fewer child care options. The New North region as a whole didn’t transition to remote work as much as larger metropolitan areas, leaving many parents scrambling.
Wage competitiveness has impacted the child care industry. Early education teachers, who have to complete schooling to get certified, could work for more money and potentially less stress in the retail or service industries, Sachse says.
Communities also simply need more child care options, and yet 62% of survey respondents indicated an unwillingness or inability to pay more for the services they need.
“That kind of encapsulates the dilemma that the industry faces. People are asking for more services, and they cost more, but they’re not willing to pay more to get them,” Sachse says. “The child care model doesn’t really operate on marginal cost like other markets do.”
Kimberly Kane, president and CEO of Milwaukee’s Kane Communications Group, shares insights from the group’s own recently completed study, “The State of Working Women in Wisconsin.” Of those from the northeast region completing the survey, 66% reported elevated stress levels, 42% said it’s difficult to find work-life balance, and 80% said they work for companies that offer no child care support.
Employers could help through partnering with other businesses to create solutions as well as offering more flexibility and simply ensuring they’re listening and responding to parents’ needs. “There is a war for talent and not everybody is going to win,” she says. “Employers need to evaluate what they need to do to become employers of choice.”
McArthur says she hopes the survey will provide a robust accounting of the state of child care in the five counties. If the counties receive grant funding, they will pursue a multipronged approach that addresses issues including child care infrastructure and attracting people to the child care profession.
Survey snapshot
The UW-Oshkosh Center for Customized Research and Services is still processing the results but shared initial findings about respondents:
- 74% female
- 78% between ages of 25 and 44
- 81% married
- 62% have lived at the same address for more than five years
- Average of 2.3 kids, often with kids in multiple age ranges and needs, such as one preschool-age or younger child and one school-age child
- 55% send their child to a state-regulated child care facility, 28% use a family member, and 11% use an in-home provider
- 18% report being unable to find weekend care, and 23% being unable to find evening care
