Millions Of Work Hours Are Lost Each Year Due To Issues With Child Care, New Index Finds
In today’s edition of Forbes Edge, we’ll take a look at a new KPMG index that’s tracking the number of American workers who miss work because of child care problems , what a “skip-level” meeting entails and more. But first, let’s dive into why fast-food workers have become important in the weeks before the presidential election.
What’s the sudden obsession with McDonald’s in the race for the White House??
On Sunday, former President Donald Trump worked part of a shift at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania , and Vice President Kamala Harris has been increasingly vocal about her experience working at a California location for a summer during college.?
(It’s worth noting, however, that while one candidate was actually employed for a time at the fast food joint, the other merely worked the fries for 30 minutes before a campaign stop, according to the New York Times .)
While the company says it does not endorse political candidates , its mere presence on the campaign trail—and candidates’ emphasis on working at the fast-food restaurant—is more about the experience of a segment of the economy and workforce. “It’s symbolic of what’s going on in the lower part of the wage scale,” says Joseph McCartin, executive director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University.?
McDonald’s has long been a popular part-time and full-time employer for folks around the country. While the company estimates that 1 in 8 Americans have at some point in their career worked at a golden arch location (this number is based on surveys and not direct employment records), more than 3.6 million Americans are currently working as fast food and counter workers, according to the Labor Department . Those employees earn an average hourly wage of $14.48 depending on location, a 30% increase from 2019, thanks to a number of pushes for wage increases across the country.?
Just as organizations were forced to adjust as knowledge workers hopped from job to job during the era of “The Great Resignation,” employers in the generally low-pay sector of fast-food service increased their wages to keep workers at their chains.?
Better pay and insights into the part-time careers of the rich and famous––Jeff Bezos, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Pharrell Williams, Shania Twain and former House Speaker Paul Ryan have all donned the McDonald’s uniform, according to the Washington Post ––has perhaps destigmatized the counter work experience. “This kind of work has become more valued,” McCartin says.?
In the final weeks before the presidential election, it makes sense that both candidates are showing interest in wage workers (and voters). “The competition that both candidates are showing around fast-food workers is just one indication about the importance of work and workers in the election,” says McCartin. “They have really come to the forefront.”
Happy reading, and hope you all have a lovely week!
—Maria Gracia Santillana Linares , Careers Reporter
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Reporter’s Notebook: Up to 1.4 billion work hours are lost each year due to child care problems
A new KPMG index is tracking the number of American workers who miss work because of child care problems. Using previously unpublished data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the index also tracks how many men and women shifted to part-time work due to a lack of affordable child care. I wrote about the index, what it brings to the conversation about child care at work and why employers might actually pay attention to this metric. An excerpt is below, and you can read the full piece here. ?
The cost of child care, and its impact on women’s careers, has been well-documented. But a new monthly index by the professional services firm KPMG is now tracking the amount of working hours men and women lose because of child care problems. And the impacts on productivity are huge.?
Using a 12-month trailing average, the Parental Work Disruption Index quantifies the total number of male and female full-time employees who missed hours or shifted to part-time work because of problems with child care, as well as the number of workers who worked part-time voluntarily because of child care issues. Access to affordable and reliable child care is becoming increasingly more difficult––annual child care costs in the U.S. now total more than the average rent cost in all 50 states.?
“We know child care costs prevent labor participation and that the child care problem really hits both sides of the [gender] equation,” says Matthew Nestler, senior economist at KPMG U.S. and author of the index. “But to what degree are child care problems affecting working Americans?”
The answer: quite a lot. Between 26 million and 1.4 billion work hours per year are lost as employees have to leave to take care of their children. Losing just one hour of work a week can total up to a $1,504 loss in annual earnings. And that’s not mentioning the impact on the rest of your employees. As employees leave, their coworkers are forced to pick up their slack, leading to increased rates of burnout.?
Women continue to be disproportionately impacted by child care problems, but men are feeling the impact, too. About 34% of workers who cut their full-time hours to part-time because of child care so far this year were men, and the number of men in this category nearly doubled from September 2023 to this year.?
Nestler says these numbers are only going to increase. About 1.6 million workers in September missed work because of child care problems, a 69% increase from the average of the same month in the previous four years. The index usually reaches its highest in the winter months of December through February, so an increase in September suggests the next months are also going to be high.?
“It points to these underlying stresses in the labor market that people are facing, disproportionately women,” he adds.
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In the midst of an ownership legal battle and an ongoing recall due to a listeria outbreak, which food manufacturer has also been accused of violating workplace safety issues and tolerating vulgar office behavior??
A. Bright Farms
B. TreeHouse Foods
C. Bruce Pac
D. Boar’s Head
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3 周The problem with child care is in the income to household qualification ratio. For example the income cap for a household of 8 to qualify for daycare voucher assistance is approximately $46K just above the poverty threshold. If a household brings in $1 more daycare assistance is discontinued. This income amount is clearly not sufficient for a household of 8. And $1 more does not indicate one can afford to pay 100s of dollars a week in childcare expense. Working around this is extremely difficult and takes a lot of resourcefulness and possibly family support during uncommon working hours or situations. The income to household qualifications need to be revisited in all states.
IT Support Specialist II at Vistra Communications.
3 周"Annual child care costs in the U.S. now total more than the average rent cost in all 50 states" I found the real issue you should be reporting on. Do better.
OK Bo?tjan Dolin?ek
Revenue Unit Manager II at State of Oklahoma
3 周I do not understand why folks that seem to have a way bigger issue today about day care don't work together in a team collaborative effort. Or is it that back when I had to pay daycare nobody cared it cost me as much as a new car to have my son watched while I made my $7.50/hour as a billing clerk? I am beginning to think the problem isn't the problem but the problem is the problem. Maybe we parents made it look easy to our children and now they don't know how to do this on their own? Or maybe it's because they were the spoiled child like my only child and thinks all their money should be about them and not somebody else? Or maybe it's because their parents paid and paved their way and God forbid they had these children when some were children and now they realize life isn't all about them anymore. I am starting to think it's all the above!