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An increasing number of families require two income earners to remain in the middle class, according to Ismat Mangla, senior content director for MagnifyMoney, a website produced by LendingTree. Meanwhile, according to Mangla, housing and child care costs are only going up, while wages have remained relatively flat.
Because of the pandemic and the rising cost of child care, it is increasingly necessary for one parent (often the mother) to stay home, rather than work.
It is yet another way the pandemic seems to be creating non-health-related challenges for women more than men; and one for which a solution is not readily available. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, workforce participation for women is at its lowest point since the 1980s. Part of the reason is this problem existed before COVID-19.
"The pandemic in many ways has been a tipping point for Ohio families, especially among working parents with children under 5," Public Opinion Strategies said in a briefing memo, according to Columbus Business First. "In an environment where labor shortages are pervasive across the state/country, childcare has become an economic issue."
But, "The childcare system we had was already broken," Lisa Courtice, CEO of United Way of Central Ohio, told Columbus Business First. "Now it has taken so many hits and it's unstable. This is a workforce issue."
It is dishonest to pretend there is not a socio-cultural component to this problem. But it is the responsibility of policy makers and elected officials to rise above that sort of thing. Finding a solution to the lack of affordable, accessible child care in Ohio should be at the top of the priority list.