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

• Ever wondered how AI can make your life easier? Forbes’ newsletter series, AI Life Hacks, is here to show you the way. Whether you’re new to chatbots like ChatGPT and Copilot or just looking for fresh ideas, we’ve got you covered. Sign up here and start your journey with AI today!

Work Smarter

Practical insights and advice from Forbes staff and contributors to help you succeed in your job, accelerate your career and lead smarter

• Why it’s important to have “skip-level” meetings, or one-on-ones with your manager’s boss.?
• Do you manage Gen Z employees? One contributor breaks down how to turn their faults into strengths.?
• Don’t accept a job offer if they are severely low-balling your starting salary, and more tips on when to say no.?
• Remember to include soft-skills in your résumé.

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.

Touch Base

News from the world of work

• Meta laid off more employees across Instagram and WhatsApp last week. But more surprisingly, it also terminated about two dozen employees over misusing $25 Grubhub meal credits in what is now being dubbed “Grubgate.” Meta offers the meal credits, which can total up to $70 a day, to employees and they are intended to be used while working in the office. But some allegedly used the Grubhub and Uber Eats credits to purchase other items, including laundry detergent, wine glasses and acne pads.?
• Immigrant workers will be the only source of labor force growth in the U.S. after 2052, a new report by the National Foundation for American Policy found. Immigrant workers made up 88% of the labor force growth in the last five years, as the number of U.S.-born workers has been impacted by declining birth rates and an aging workforce.?
• In what might be a lesson to marketing departments, Intuit rolled-back its “break up with your tax pro” ad campaign after a number of tax industry groups and professionals complained and met with TurboTax’s parent company last week. Tax professionals are not just competitor’s to the company’s DIY tax-filing market, but also clients: Revenue for Intuit’s tax professional services grew 7% last year.
• Location, location, location: Sam’s Club CTO Cheryl Ainoa is leaving the company due to its latest return-to-office policy, Bloomberg reports. In August, Sam’s Club parent company Walmart asked executives across their brands to relocate to its Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters. Losing employees due to RTO mandates is not uncommon (and in fact may be an intended consequence), but some companies have made exceptions for top-level executives. New Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol, for example, is allowed to work from his California home as more corporate workers have been called back to its Seattle headquarters.

Quiz

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

Click here to see if you got it right.