US Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) speaks at an event promoting the reintroduction of the Child Care Act for Working Families at the US Capitol April 27, 2023 in Washington, DC. The legislation would provide funding for child care and early education programs for low- to middle-income families. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
- Senator Patty Murray is again pushing for legislation to make childcare affordable and accessible.
- Under her proposal, costs would be contained, new centers could be opened, and workers would earn more.
- She told Insider that the growth of the US economy depends on workers having access to childcare.
Senator Patty Murray says our economy’s growth depends on access to childcare.
“We will continue to have labor shortages,” the Washington Democrat told Insider. “We will continue to find it impossible to continue growing our economy.”
Murray, along with Democrats like Rep. Bobby Scott — again — introduced legislation that would reduce childcare costs and raise wages for providers. Under the Childcare for Working Families Act, families’ childcare costs would be capped at 7% of their income, and families earning less than 85% of their state’s median would pay nothing at all. The legislation would also provide funding for the opening of new centres, better after-hours support and salaries for teachers comparable to their primary school counterparts.
“Childcare was a crisis long ago, but it was a silent crisis,” Murray told Insider. For years, even as America’s childcare has become increasingly expensive and unaffordable, parents have worried that they are jeopardizing their careers, she said. However, it is now clear that childcare is an economic necessity.
“Employers need workers, and they know they won’t have one unless we fix the child care system,” Murray said. “So this is an economic crisis that is affecting everyone now. People speak a lot louder about what is helpful.”
It’s no secret to parents and workers that American childcare is ailing. Several teachers told Insider that working in this field is essentially an affair of the heart, with many relying on either higher-earning partners or extreme cost-saving measures to stay afloat. That creates a vicious circle in which childcare providers are stepping down from their roles, childcare centers are struggling, and parents are bearing the brunt of reduced availability and higher costs — all things Murray’s proposal seeks to address.
At the same time, the costs for both facility owners and parents are unsustainable, and childcare deserts remain rampant. Research by the US Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau has found that childcare is unaffordable almost everywhere in the US and fewer women are employed where it is more expensive. Families spend at least 8% of their income on childcare costs, according to the DOL report; under Murray’s legislation that percentage would be capped at 7%.
“Women work to provide for their families,” Murray said. “There are women who don’t have two income families. There are families who have changed differently. Everyone needs childcare.”
But a big welfare spending proposal is an uphill battle in a House controlled by Republicans bent on cutting spending and a razor-thin Democratic majority in the Senate that has already crushed ambitious federal proposals for paid vacations and affordable childcare . House Republicans have already passed a debt ceiling package that would increase labor requirements for social programs and ban student loan forgiveness, among a host of other cuts.
“What they’ve been relaying — and what they’re talking about — are theories they’ve long been fond of spouting, ten-second sound bits about how we’re going to cut childcare, we’re going to make SN` hard to get, we are going to do all those things,” Murray said. “And they’ve never experienced the consequences of that, which are severe.”
Murray pointed to the result of Roe v. Wade pointed to an example where politicians and the country would feel the consequences. She said her legislation was meant to forestall that and help the other side of the aisle find a way to support both the economy and families.
And the economic fallout could be dire if childcare isn’t addressed, according to Murray, who said: “We’re going to cut our own throats in terms of growing our economy.”
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