It is no secret the cost of child care is expensive. It can be downright prohibitive for many single parents and even two-earner households. According to a Child Care Aware of America report, in 2022, the average cost of full-time center-based care for an infant was $12,304 per year.
In Southern Nevada, the annual average cost for infant child care is $11,107 and jumps to $19,919 for an infant plus a preschool aged child. In Nevada, single parents pay, on average, 37.7 percent of their income for center-based infant child care. Married parents of two children living at the poverty line pay 79.4 percent of their household income for the same. The average price of center-based infant child care in Nevada is more than the average annual tuition and fees at a public four-year college or university.
While there are reimbursement programs and ways to save, such as the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit, those funds can be delayed or distributed at inopportune times.
The Children’s Cabinet, a statewide 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency serving children and families, conducted Nevada’s 2022 Child Care Market Rate Survey (MRS) that compiled data relating to child care reimbursements and distributions in the state. Forty-five percent of providers who are active in the subsidy program said the reimbursement rate being too low was the top barrier to subsidy program participation, followed by delay in reimbursements (37 percent) and not enough families qualifying for the subsidy (31 percent).
According to one provider, the financial qualification is very hard to meet. There are many low-income families that should have qualified — but because of the poverty line cut off, many families are not being helped. For HopeLink of Southern Nevada families, this is a huge barrier. HopeLink provides programs and services aimed at preventing homelessness and keeping families intact. In 2021, 42 percent of the people we served were children (HopeLink serves an average of 10,000 households annually).
Families experiencing financial or housing crises turn to HopeLink for emergency shelter, housing, rent, mortgage, utility and food assistance. Our goal, and theirs, is to regain self-sufficiency and financial stability as fast as possible. To do this, they need permanent housing and income, neither of which they can secure without employment. But employment isn’t a panacea. Inflation, the high cost of housing and day care, are just some of the reasons families may struggle to keep their heads above water.
Whenever our emergency shelter team is asked about the major barriers for clients in this program, the number one answer is the income requirements for securing housing, followed by the prohibitive cost of child care. One HopeLink client in our emergency shelter program, a young mother of a 2-month-old infant, recently fled an abuser and was doing everything she could to make a better life for her and her daughter. She was securing all her needed documents (driver’s license, copy of her daughter’s birth certificate), setting up meetings with various community agencies for additional support services and programs, and applying for multiple jobs, which resulted in three job offers. Sadly, she was unable to accept because of costs and lack of available child care.
Though there are organizations that receive funding to provide child care subsidies to parents, the process can be time consuming, and it may be a lengthy process before financial support is approved. Funding excesses may place families on a waitlist, or funding may be exhausted, creating an unreliable resource for families in need.
A January 2023 study from the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor estimated that each 10 percent increase in child care prices results in maternal employment rates at the county level that are 1 percent to 4 percent lower.
This is not only hurting the families, but our economy as well. Businesses need employees and many are still struggling to find enough to be fully staffed. In Nevada Business Magazine in November 2022, Brian Gordon of Applied Analysis said there are two job openings for every person in the unemployment system, or about 86,000 people in Clark County.
While we wait for our elected officials to make this a priority, there are ways that we can start to address this crisis within our own community.
- Large companies that employ hundreds of people and operate multiple shifts can provide day care access to employees by creating a corporate-managed day care, or by recruiting day care centers to locate next to the work site, which will allow employees to drop off and pick up their children as they arrive and leave work.
- Employers can offer plans to employees so they can direct money from their paycheck to their flex fund to pay for daycare. By diverting the funds from their paycheck, it also lowers their taxable income at year end.
- Individuals or companies that see child care as a priority should consider making a significant donation ($1 million or more) to a local nonprofit for day care scholarships so the communities they serve can have safe, caring and dependable day care. Employees can return to the workforce and, in turn, earn, support their families and purchase products and services, which helps boost our local economy, lower the homelessness rates and helps our local businesses thrive.
If this resonates with you, write, email, call or visit your local elected officials and encourage them to make day care a priority for Southern Nevada so everyone who has children at home and who wants to get back to work can.
Stacey Lockhart is the CEO of HopeLink of Southern Nevada.
