Employer and Parent Child Care Survey
The Child Care Council of Westchester recently completed two separate surveys, of Westchester parents and Westchester employers, which together paint a clear picture of the child care-related challenges facing our county.
Respondents:
- 715 families: geographically and economically diverse
- 41 employers: for- and non-profit
Of the Westchester employers who responded to our survey, 75% find that child care issues result in absenteeism or productivity loss among employees. Even so, 98% of employers report that child care issues are handled on a case-by-case or ad-hoc basis, rather than in a more formal way.
Westchester’s working parents agree that child care issue affect their work: 50% of parents surveyed report that child care has impacted their job in the past year, causing them to:
- Call out - 68%
- Leave early - 65%
- Arrive late - 51%
- Feel distracted at work - 49%
- Feel unproductive at work - 25%
- Cut back working hours - 20%
429 parents say that child care impacted their job in the last year, due to child care issues that include:
- lack of child care
- unreliability
- inability to pay for child care
- worry about quality of care or safety
The bottom line: Both employers and employees recognize that lack of quality, affordable, reliable child care negatively affects the workplace, yet employers offer few parent-friendly benefits other than mandated maternity leave, despite their general belief that doing so would be positive for their organizations and their employees.
The Child Care Council can help! Our professional staff work with employers and directly with parents to provide resource and referral information related to finding, evaluating and paying for child care.