This is a guest opinion column

The United States does not value child care or work deemed ‘women’s work.’ The concept of child care – where young children are nurtured into healthy, caring and productive people – has always been looked at as “women’s work.” And women’s work is perpetually devalued, both socially and financially. The only thing valued less than women’s work, is work performed by women of color. This is not a statement deserving celebration, but rather shame.

The truth of the matter is that Black women often care for other people’s families professionally. That traces its roots back to the times when Black women were enslaved and forced to enter domestic work, which included caring for white families’ children. The U.S.’s child care industry is built on the backs of Black women, and that grim history is still felt today when people realize how little society values child care.

In America – including right here in Alabama – too many people are inundated with the belief that child care is a private responsibility rather than a public need. But look at what that attitude has created: The U.S. has a fragmented child care system. Many parents find it nearly impossible to find high-quality child care that is also affordable. And on the other side of it, child care workers – many of whom are Black women – are so poorly paid that they often live below their state’s poverty line.

Full-time child care is wildly expensive. It can cost up to $17,000 per year or more, depending on where a family lives and what type of care they need. Financial assistance may be available, but the fact is that 39% of children across the country (and an astounding 79% in Alabama) who needed child care subsidies in 2019 were Black, illustrating how difficult it is for families of color to find affordable child care. But only about 14% of eligible children can even receive those subsidies, thanks to strict limits at the state level.

Meanwhile, women make up 94% of all child care workers in the United States. Women of color comprise 40% of that workforce, with 15% of them specifically Black women. But despite the social strides that Black women are supposed to have made over the centuries, they are still earning a pittance for such essential work. As of 2021, the median hourly wage for child care workers was only $13.22, with the lowest 10% earning less than $8.91.

Child care providers themselves operate on razor-thin margins, usually less than 1%, meaning that they have no incentives to pay their workers a higher wage. That creates an ongoing environment of chronically low pay, high turnover and more child care deserts.

The U.S. is perpetuating a cycle of poverty that chiefly targets Black women, and women of color who care for our youngest and brightest minds – children from birth through kindergarten. By keeping the child care industry within the private market, the U.S. will continue to undervalue that system and force women of color to subsidize it through their underpaid labor. This is not sustainable and will adversely impact not only child care educators, but children and families as well.

The U.S. is in a crisis. It needs to invest in child care.

At the Alabama Institute for Social Justice, we believe that with targeted, systematic shifts in how we treat child care, we can expand access to more parents while also valuing the work that Black women do as they care for other families’ children. We can transform child care into a public good, better valuing those who need it and those who offer it.

To do this, policymakers must ensure state-level funding to cover the true cost of quality child care. This will ensure that families in Alabama never pay more than a minimal 7% of their income, or no more than they can afford to pay, on child care. Accomplishing that will have massive economic and social benefits for families within the state. By making child care affordable and enabling mothers to go back into the workforce instead of staying home, Alabama’s economy can expand by $1.3 billion.

Removing market-rate restrictions and moving to a cost-based model would mean that Alabama could provide living wages and benefits for child care workers, leading to lower industry turnover, well-paying jobs and fewer child care deserts. In the event readers question why market rate doesn’t work, I note that the methods the state uses to calculate payment are based on how much providers charge, and we all know parents are struggling now. This means what the state pays reinforces the inequities already in the market.

By tackling this crisis head-on, our state can begin to deconstruct the racial and gendered discrimination present within the labor market. We could finally see Black women being paid what they’re worth and families accessing the high-quality care that they need and deserve. Who wouldn’t want this?

Lenice C. Emanuel, MLA, is the executive director of the Alabama Institute for Social Justice in Montgomery, AL