Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo spoke at the National Child Care Innovation Summit held at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC on June 27.
Photo courtesy of the Department of Commerce
a A question about child care was asked during the first presidential debate in Atlanta on Thursday night. The debate was the result of a campaign by the advocacy group Moms First to include a question about child care, but it got very little airtime as President Biden briefly mentioned the issue while former President Trump ignored the question entirely.
But earlier in the day in Washington, D.C., child care issues took center stage at a day-long event hosted by the Department of Commerce and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its Foundation, the first such summit hosted by federal agencies and organizations representing business interests.
“It is essential that we have a workforce that comes to work every day, that is ready and able to work, that doesn’t miss a shift and is performing at its best,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in her opening remarks, noting that the event fell on the birthday of Raimondo’s own mother, who served as the caretaker for her children — a privilege she noted many working parents don’t have.
“If we want women, and men, to participate in child care, we need to think about it more holistically. Child care is good for business and economic competitiveness, and the lack of child care infrastructure is costing us dearly.”
Raimondo is working on workforce issues such as broadband access, child care and women in construction alongside global trade, artificial intelligence and economic competitiveness at the Commerce Department, and is leading the allocation of the Biden Administration’s $53 billion CHIPS and Science Act, which also includes funding for new semiconductor manufacturing facilities built in the U.S. and that provide child care facilities. plan For facilities and construction workers.
The event had a bipartisan feel, with Democratic and Republican lawmakers and governors. (Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey and Colorado Governor Jared Polis, both Democrats, shared the stage with Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb, a Republican, who appeared via video conference on a panel moderated by Raimondo.) Speakers included philanthropists (Melinda Gates spoke virtually), small business owners, child care providers, startups with new child care business models, public-private partnership leaders, and corporate executives.
Another panel, moderated by Raimondo, included Etsy CEO Josh Silverman, UPS U.S. President Nand Cezarone, Micron Executive Vice President Manish Bhatia, Suffolk Construction CEO John Fish and, in a prepared virtual speech, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna. “How incredible that four CEOs and senior executives of companies are here talking about parenting,” Raimondo began, drawing applause. “That’s an achievement in itself, a credit to them, and it gives me hope that we can do this as a country.”
In a short interview at the event Forbes“I don’t think that would have happened five years ago,” Raimondo said.“, He noted the panel of executives discussing parenting, the scale of the event and that it is being held at a chamber of commerce representing the business community.
Until recently, “this was seen as a social issue, a women’s issue,” she says. But that’s changing: “Everybody’s having a hard time finding workers. Unless we find a way to get women to work, we can’t get the work done.”
In the interview ForbesRaimondo furthered on an announcement earlier in the day that the Census Bureau, part of the Commerce Department, would expand a key data-collection tool called the Current Population Survey to better understand the economic relevance of child care. It’s not yet clear what exactly that means in terms of the data that will be collected, but Raimondo said: Forbes “The concept, and the reason I wanted to do this, is that you can’t have good policy without data.”
Asked if the CHIPS Act’s approach of tying child care planning to government funding could be expanded to other industries, Raimondo replied, “I think every industry should be covered, frankly,” noting the range of industries that struggle with access to child care on stage. “If you look at history, societal norms change in moments of crisis,” she said. “It’s a workforce crisis. It creates inflation, it stifles growth, it keeps businesses from expanding at the pace they need to. I hope that in this moment of child care crisis, we shift our thinking and say this isn’t just a women’s issue, this is everyone’s issue.”
According to an October 2023 report from the Bank of America Institute, the average cost of child care per household has risen by more than 30% since 2019, with the largest increase for middle- and upper-income households. The report noted that as of last September, the average household was paying more than $700 a month for child care, 32% higher than the 2019 average, which could have an impact on labor force participation rates and consumer spending.
The event featured perspectives from child care providers such as Patch Caregiving, which offers backup child care services to employers with frontline employees, as well as a variety of employers with large populations of hourly and manufacturing workers who traditionally have less access to employer-sponsored child care.
Amber Wisely, Intel’s vice president of total rewards, during a panel discussion detailed the company’s new child care initiatives starting this fall, including working with Patch to open a dedicated backup child care facility near its Oregon plant and benefits such as additional subsidies for hourly employees to help offset child care costs. “This is something that our factory workers have been talking about. They need backup child care, but they can’t always find it when they’re working a shift,” Wisely said during Thursday’s panel discussion.
In her opening remarks, Raimondo presented data from the Council for a Stronger America, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on family policy, suggesting that inadequate child care costs employers $23 billion a year. “Addressing the child care crisis requires massive public investments and short-term solutions — because people still have to go to work tomorrow — and we need to build for the long term,” she said.
