Want to Grow North Carolina’s Economy? Fix the Child Care Crisis

Working parents in North Carolina, particularly those with infants and toddlers, know how difficult it is to find child care that’s accessible, affordable, and high-quality. Meanwhile, our state’s employers know the economic impact of these child care challenges.

A new national study by ReadyNation examining the economic impacts of the nation’s child care crisis on working parents, employers, and taxpayers describes the consequences: an annual cost of $57 billion in lost earnings, productivity, and revenue.

North Carolina’s gross domestic product and population represent roughly 3 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product and total population, suggesting that the lack of reliable child care for young children up to age 3 could cost $1.7 billion annually in North Carolina.

The business leader members of ReadyNation in North Carolina are calling on lawmakers to protect and expand programs that enhance the affordability and availability of quality child care – and to foster continuing innovations at the state and local level that address this problem for parents and employers.

Evidence-based, sufficiently-funded policy initiatives to fix the child care crisis will improve life outcomes for North Carolina children today, and will support a more productive workforce and economy for our state, both now and in the years to come.