LIVINGSTON, La. (BRPROUD) — The Louisiana Policy Institute for Children (LPIC) released results from a survey called “Help Wanted: The Staffing Operating Challenges Facing Louisiana Child Care providers” Tuesday, Sept. 26.
The survey’s main purpose was to recognize the challenges of the field that assists parents as they go to work, school or look for new work. According to a release from LPIC, most child care providers in the state are experiencing rising costs for routine expenses including food, cleaning supplies and insurance.
“The findings from this survey reiterate the urgent need to support families and our economy,” said John Dean, president and owner of AirSystems, LLC. “Everyone talks about the insurance crisis in Louisiana, but no one is talking about how the businesses that care for and educate our babies are facing insurance premium increases of almost $17,00 a year.”
According to LPIC, results give insights into challenges, including:
- Child care providers are not immune from the pinch of inflation and rising costs of doing business, with over two thirds of providers seeing insurance premium rise by an average of almost $17,000.
- Child care, like other industries, experiences major staffing challenges, with two-thirds of providers worried about short-and long-term employee turnover.
- Staffing challenges and delays in public child care assistance leave many families waiting for care, with over two-thirds of providers reporting they maintain a waitlist with an average size of 34 children.
- While providers have increased wages in an effort to retain employees, most child care workers still earn less than a livable wage and receive few workplace benefits.
According to the findings from the study done by LPIC, more than half of child care businesses in the state currently have a staff opening and departing employees quoted higher wages at their new job as the cause for their departure.
Click here to check out the complete findings from the survey.
