South Carolina’s alarming childcare problem centers on three factors | Opinion

Addressing South Carolina’s workforce challenges has been a top priority for our General Assembly in recent years and will continue to be a key focus this legislative session. Policy solutions to this critical issue cannot come soon enough.

Currently, South Carolina’s labor force participation rate is 57% compared to a national rate of 63%. At the end of November, 78,000 jobs were vacant across our state.

One of the most significant reasons for the lack of workforce participation is the shortage of childcare. According to a 2022 survey by the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce, 27% of respondents said either a lack of childcare or the need to stay with a child was a top barrier to work.

A grassroots tour across local chambers of commerce tells us that 69% of our businesses are struggling to hire and retain qualified workers and 42% say that a lack of workers is the biggest challenge facing their business today.

Simply stated: if parents don’t have childcare, they cannot work. Childcare is the workforce behind every other workforce in our state.

Our current childcare crisis for just children ages birth to 3 is costing South Carolina’s economy an estimated $1.4 billion annually according to a new report by ReadyNation, titled “The Growing, Annual Cost of the Infant-Toddler Child Care Crisis in South Carolina.” This report totals the costs to working parents due to lost earnings, to our businesses due to lost productivity and to our tax base due to lost tax revenues. It is both shocking and sobering.

The childcare problem is growing at an alarming rate. We know that 61% of our 167,000 children birth through age 3 have mothers in the workforce. Yet new parents are faced with long waiting lists and high costs when trying to find quality care for their children.

In addition to the impact the childcare crisis is having on today’s economy, we also know that the infants and toddlers of 2023 will become the high school students of the 2030s and the workforce of the 2040s. If we want the best workforce possible and the best lives possible for these children, we need to make sure they have the best care possible during a crucial, irreplaceable time of brain development — the first few years of life.

Childcare challenges center on three factors: access, affordability and quality.

Access is an issue because nearly half (42%) of South Carolinians live in a childcare “desert,” an area where there are more than three young children for every licensed childcare slot. The number of childcare providers, as well as childcare slots, decreased significantly in the wake of the pandemic. Some providers, who earn an average of $12 an hour in South Carolina, left the field for positions in industries like retail, which offer better wages and benefits.

Affordability is also a major concern, and the low supply of available slots obviously helps drive up costs. The average cost of center-based childcare for infants is $9,048 per year. This cost represents 9% of the median annual income of a married couple in South Carolina, while 7% is considered affordable. This high cost makes childcare unaffordable for too many families.

Quality is the third major challenge, often caused by high rates of provider turnover, frequently due to poor compensation. So, even when parents can find childcare, it can be low quality, depriving infants and toddlers in these settings of the many benefits that high-quality care can provide.

We know businesses play a role in solving the childcare crisis, through on-site childcare, flexible scheduling, and financial support for employees to access childcare. However, we also know that many businesses aren’t in a position to take these steps — and even the ones that are can’t do it alone.

South Carolina also needs policy solutions to address the barriers to childcare access, affordability and quality that guarantees children’s safety while their parents are working. Action cannot come soon enough.

Sen. Ross Turner chairs the Special Joint Committee to Study Childcare. Bob Morgan is president and CEO of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce.