4 ms·
A big city in the US is going to have a lot of reasonable-sounding regulations like: minimum wage of $15/hr, requirement of max 4 kids per teacher until the age
by RestlessMind 6y ago
A big city in the US is going to have a lot of reasonable-sounding regulations like: minimum wage of $15/hr, requirement of max 4 kids per teacher until the age of 2, insurances, square footage etc. (An example of 26-page regulations in California[1]).
Say you need 9 hr care every day from 9-6. That adds up to 45hrs/week. Even pooling 4 kids together, you are looking at ~700$/week cost per teacher at minimum wage. Have 1.5-2x factor for more experienced or more skilled teachers. Add another 2-3x for rent, insurance, utilities, admin expenses, backup teacher expenses etc. And you are looking at 2K-4K per teacher (or 500-1K per kid) expense per week, or 2-4K per month per kid. Completely aligns with my experience in SV, across childcare centers of various qualities.
[1] https://www.cdss.ca.gov/Portals/9/Regs/1cccman.pdf?ver=2019-07-02-111907-160 https://www.cdss.ca.gov/Portals/9/Regs/1cccman.pdf?ver=2019-...
- mindvirus 6y agoFrom an individual perspective yes it makes sense, but from a societal one it seems harmful. It means that anyone who makes less than $100k/year - a lot of money - has financial incentive to either not have kids or to drop out of the work force. And given the wage gap, the people who drop out will disproportionately be women. It also means that couples making more than that each end up with an even bigger advantage, since they can stay in the workforce and continue to grow their careers.
- RestlessMind 6y ago> but from a societal one it seems harmful Why? You can always subsidize childcare via taxes. You can see that happening in the rich countries with dwindling populations. It won't happen in the US yet because the population is still growing thanks to immigration and also due to the ideological opposition to any public spending by a major party.