Press Release
January 7, 2025
Cost of Childcare fuels labor shortage of small business
Small Business Chamber and DSS suggest possible solution
Columbia, SC—National surveys have found that the cost of affordable, quality childcare is seen as a serious problem by small businesses and a key contributor to their labor shortage problem.
A recent national survey of small businesses by Goldman Sachs found:
–35% saying their employees have been forced to cut their work hours or forgo work entirely because of the cost and/or availability of childcare.
–38% saying that a lack of childcare has had a negative impact on their ability to operate or grow their business.
–62% saying that being able to offer a childcare benefit to their employees would have a positive impact on talent recruitment and retention.
Today the SC Special Joint Committee to Study Childcare heard testimony on the issue of childcare in the state.
The President and CEO of the SC Small Business Chamber of Commerce, Frank Knapp, stressed the need for addressing the problem saying that the state should consider a program for small businesses in which there is a shared responsibility for the cost of a worker’s childcare needs.
Maybe that monthly cost is divided three ways—a government contribution per eligible employee, an employer contribution and the worker’s contribution. The payment for childcare would flow through the employer.
This would result in more childcare providers because now the consumers with the need can afford the service. This would also help small businesses recruit labor by being able to subsidize the childcare needs of employees. And the public would know that the government assistance is actually going to childcare providers because of the small business involvement.
Ms. Connelly-Anne Ragley, Chief External Affairs Officer at SC Department of Social Services, told the committee that her agency is proposing funding in their budget for a pilot tri-share program in which employers, employees and the state would share the cost of the childcare needs of employees.
Read Mr. Knapp’s testimony here.
View the WIS-TV story here.
###
Contact:
Frank Knapp
803-600-6874 cell
fknapp@scsbc.org