Child care is a common theme of discussion among businesses of all levels—local, state and nationwide. For Glendale Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Joshua Gunn, child care challenges for his members’ employees turn into “real time lost, real revenue lost, real productivity lost for big and small businesses. It’s a comprehensive challenge and requires a comprehensive solution.”
The chamber and its 1,400+ members serve Glendale and its surrounding areas. From small restaurants to large multinational corporations, businesses have come together to collaborate on solutions. The Glendale Chamber of Commerce took it one step further establishing a workforce development committee. One major concern they’re addressing is how the lack of child care is impacting their businesses and their employees.
“Everybody’s a part of the business community, whether you own a business, you work at a business, you shop at a business,” Gunn said. “What happens in our economy impacts everyone. And so I think that requires us to listen to the voices of not just our 1,400-plus members, but the people they serve and the community issues that are relevant to them.”
Child care is workforce development
The chamber’s next Impact Series forum will focus on the importance of the West Valley workforce and how early childhood education impacts businesses of all sizes. As Arizona’s early childhood agency, First Things First (FTF) is a sponsor of the June 4 event that will provide insight into the crucial link between early childhood education and the current and future workforce. The sponsorship is part of FTF’s work to help inform the community about the critical importance of early childhood investments. Ensuring babies, toddlers and preschoolers get a strong start and supporting working families is key to the state’s success.
FTF’s Community Engagement Coordinator Nicole Yezzi will be part of the panel discussion that aims to connect, convene and catalyze solutions. She will join a panel that includes City of Glendale Economic Development Deputy Director Lori German and WESTMARC President and CEO Sintra Hoffman, among others.
Early childhood education is a developmental priority for the future of the West Valley’s economic region that will not only impact the current workforce but the future generations to come, Gunn said.
“It’s easy to think, ‘Why is the chamber of commerce even talking about babies?’” he said. “Why are we even talking about preschool and daycare and these things that, if you don’t have kids, maybe you don’t even think they matter? But it’s an economic imperative to prepare our workforce for the future.”
He points to international companies, like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Amcore that are investing billions of dollars into the area and are going to need thousands of employees for the next decades.
“Our future quite literally depends on our ability to raise those children in a way that prepares them to be a part of this economy and participate,” Gunn said. “And so it’s obviously a future workforce imperative.”
Child care is also a current crisis.
“We’re hearing from our employer community that child care is a major hurdle for them in retaining employees.” – Josh Gunn
With around 80% of Glendale’s members considered small businesses (100 employees or fewer), those employers deal with working parents who struggle to find reliable child care. This issue negatively affects both the businesses’ operations and the working parents’ job performance. Arizona employers to lose $958 million annually due to child care challenges faced by their workforce, according to a study by the Council for a Strong America.
Child care is expensive
In Arizona, infant child care costs more than a year’s tuition at a public university, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute. These financial hurdles can lead to businesses struggling to retain quality talent.
“I think you’d open up the doors to a population of people that aren’t currently in your workforce pool by providing them more affordable resources, better access to resources around child care, or family-friendly policies,” Gunn said.
