Why child-care workers are quitting

Post Reports

The Washington Post

Daily News, Politics, News

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🗓️ 11 October 2021

⏱️ ? minutes

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Summary

Working in a day care is a demanding job — but the pay is typically around just $12 an hour, and often without benefits. Many child-care workers have quit during the pandemic, leaving parents without options and struggling to return to work themselves.

Hiring and retaining good workers has been tough in the child-care industry for years, but it is escalating into a crisis. Pandemic-fueled staffing challenges threaten to hold back the recovery, as the staffing problems at day cares have a ripple effect across the economy. Without enough employees, day cares are turning away children, leaving parents — especially mothers — unable to return to work, as economic correspondent Heather Long reports.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The number one reason I do not work in childcare anymore, the pay, the pay is absolute,
0:10.9	just total, total crap.
0:16.5	Tansy Roberts is a 22 year old who recently quit her job at a childcare center.
0:22.0	Like there's no other way to just describe how awful the pay is for the amount of energy,
0:29.1	emotionally, mentally, physically that goes into the job.
0:35.9	We've all seen the help-wanted science in our neighborhoods.
0:39.6	Restaurants, retailers, grocery stores, all looking for people to work.
0:43.8	But data shows that the problem is especially bad for daycares and childcare centers.
0:49.1	It's demanding work that doesn't pay a lot.
0:51.7	That's why people like Tansy don't want to work there anymore.
0:54.8	And in this economy, they don't have to.
0:58.3	From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports.
1:01.7	I'm Martine Powers.
1:03.3	It's Monday, October 11th.
1:06.3	Today, childcare workers who are quitting their jobs, daycare centers that might have no
1:11.3	choice but to close, and parents who are left without options.
1:16.1	There are simply not enough spots across the US for all the children who need care so
1:22.5	their parents can go back to work, and some of that is because of lingering effects of
1:28.5	the pandemic.
1:29.9	But a lot of it is really just for years.
1:32.7	This was a really low-paying industry.
1:35.2	The typical wage is 12, 24 an hour, and it often does not come with benefits.
	...

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