Child care issues kept an average of 19.35% of employed Alabamians from going to work in 2021, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Alabamians missed work for child care purposes at a higher percentage than any other state, despite ranking 31st in the overall number of employees missing work.

The BLS estimated that an average 62,000 Alabamians missed work for their own illness, vacation, child care or another reason in 2021. Still, Alabama was the only state to reach the 19% mark when it came to missing work because of child care challenges — South Carolina, which ranked second for employees not at work for child care reasons, totaled 18.31%.

The three states with the highest average number of employed residents missing work were California, Texas and New York.

• In California, 16.49% of 649,000 absent employees were not at work for child care reasons.
• In Texas, 10.74% of 475,000 absent employees were not at work for child care reasons.
• In New York, 11.88% of 320,000 absent employees were not at work for child care reasons.

The struggle to access child care in Alabama is not new. According to data from the Bipartisan Policy Center, 4 in 10 Alabama kids lacked access to child care, impacting the parent workforce throughout the state. Additionally, care costs have risen across the state, with an estimated 11% increase in the annual cost of a child attending a center-based preschool from 2018 to 2022.

So far, no bills have been pre-filed by state legislators regarding child care.

In President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday, he referenced bringing back the full Child Tax Credit, which was expanded as part of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. It allowed between $2,000-3,600 annually for children under age six, and up to $3,000 for kids under 17.

Families were able to receive monthly payments from July to December 2021, ahead of filing their taxes, when they would receive the rest of the credit.

“Let’s also make sure working parents can afford to raise a family with sick days, paid family and medical leave, and affordable child care that will enable millions more people to go to work,” Biden said. “Let’s also restore the full Child Tax Credit, which gave tens of millions of parents some breathing room and cut child poverty in half, to the lowest level in history.”

Couples making under $150,000 or single parents making $112,500 each year were eligible or the full credit. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income for Alabamians was $54,943 between 2017-2021.

In December 2021, 930,000 Alabama children were reported to have received monthly tax credits. In 2022, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported that the tax credit expansion kept 5.3 million Americans above the poverty line.

Missing work for child care was also doubly more likely to occur among women than men in the state. While an average of 4,000 Alabama men missed work because of child care in 2021, the number doubled for women, with 8,000 missing work for the same reason.

Additionally, Black Alabamians were more likely to miss work because of child care than white Alabamians. Of the 17,000 Black residents who missed work in 2021, 23.53% reported child care issues, compared to only 19.04% of the 42,000 white residents who missed work.

Ahead of the state legislative session, members of the Alabama Work Force and Wage Gap task force are expected to release recommendations for lawmakers to expand support for child care throughout the state. The session begins in March.