Here’s a thought-provoking number for parents of young children on the Space Coast: Annual childcare expenses in Florida are more than $22,400.
Currently the total tuition over four years at the University of Central Florida is about $26,000.
And that’s just the cost to parents and individual caregivers. Childcare issues impact the Florida business community by billions of dollars annually, typically involving things like employee turnover and unplanned absences from work.
“The business community needs to understand that childcare is a workforce issue,” said Laura Gambino, chief executive officer of the Early Learning Coalition of Brevard.
Gambino was part of a three-person panel Nov. 13 addressing the issue of childcare in Brevard County and Florida, and its impact on working families and employers. Thursday’s briefing at Rockledge Country Club was titled “The Childcare Industry in Brevard” and it was put on by the weVENTURE Women’s Business Center, a program of Florida Tech’s Bisk College of Business.
Childcare is a huge expense for most working families — a budget item likely second or third to rent and healthcare. Gambino and the other two panelists — Ric Banciella, director of business engagement for Bosses for Babies, The Children’s Movement of Florida; and Susan Povost, Age of Learning Inc. — said the expenses for childcare grow as more data shows that early education prior to kindergarten is vital to students later successes.
Banciella, a former businessman, travels across the Sunshine State educating businesses on the importance of both issues, early learning and the need for better childcare solutions. It’s the latter that he said should be worrisome at the moment for a state and employers who want to retain the best and brightest in Florida.
Childcare costs, along with housing expenses, are what’s driving younger workers (25 to 40 year olds) to other states, he said.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says that childcare should not consume more than 7 percent of a family’s household income.
In Brevard, about 15 percent of a person’s annual gross income goes to daycare care for one child. Housing eats up another 30 percent of that annual gross income.
So about 45 percent of a young parent’s gross income is gone just between housing and care for a child.
Panelists noted childcare issues impact women more than men, as they’re the ones taking time off or dropping out of the labor force to stay at home.
“We are in an age where more women than ever have a child under the age of 5 and are in the labor force,” said Kathryn Rudloff, executive director of weVENTURE WBC.
The good thing is that Florida businesses can take some seemingly smaller actions (aside from pay) that would make a big difference. They include, Banciella said:
Offering better paid leave programs
Providing flexible work and scheduling
Expanding health and wellness benefits
Providing onsite childcare
“There are a lot of ways you can address this problem,” Banciella said, “because it’s a huge issue for the entire state.”
Wayne Price is director of communications for the Space Coast Health Foundation.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Big childcare costs impacting Florida workers