Essential workers need child care support - Commonwealth Magazine
By Eunicia Gomes and Marie Menard
Essential workers are taking care of our state and of our nation: healthcare workers, grocery clerks, bank tellers, first responders, domestic workers, restaurant workers, janitors, and so many more. Yet many of us are fighting to keep ourselves afloat, especially as we struggle to find care for our children while we go to work.
With licensed child care in limited supply and many schools still operating on remote or hybrid models, it’s getting harder each day to manage both our jobs and the needs of our families during the pandemic. Our choices are to spend a significant portion of our paycheck on child care, find a friend or a family member to rely on, or leave the workforce to take care for our kids.
More than 2.5 million women left the workforce last year, according to the Department of Labor. The pandemic’s child care challenges are causing women, particularly black and Latinx women, to drop out of the workforce or reduce their work hours. As we mark March as the Women’s History Month, state leaders must address the needs of essential workers, especially women workers, and create actionable steps to provide reliable child care solutions that will not make us choose between our jobs and our children.