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James Myall and Arthur Phillips are economic policy analysts at the Maine Center for Economic Policy.
One of the most frequently asked questions we hear at the Maine Center for Economic Policy is how to expand the state’s workforce. One answer: Give workers the family friendly support they need to be productive at home and on the job.
Thanks to bold actions taken at the state and federal level, there are now more people employed than before the pandemic. In fact, Maine currently has the lowest unemployment rate on record. So why do employers still report hiring difficulties, and why do tens of thousands of workers remain out of the labor force?
Part of the answer has to do with a labor market reshuffling that drew workers out of some sectors and into others. But another key reason involves the impossible choices that parents and caregivers are forced to make every day.
When people who wish to work aren’t working, it’s often because they’re caring for other people, including young children, disabled family members and aging parents. About 24,000 Mainers cite a lack of available child care as the main reason they aren’t in the labor force. Compounding the problem, prime-age Mainers are also challenged to find direct care providers for family members with disabilities and aging parents. Our estimates show the direct care crisis alone keeps more than 8,000 people out of Maine’s labor force at a cost of more than $1 billion per year in lost economic activity.
A “care economy” in crisis requires solutions that recognize the value of care. That means paying caregivers more, subsidizing care to make it more affordable, and ensuring workers’ financial and job security is protected when they provide care for a family member. Bold policy solutions on the table, including paid family and medical leave and child care wage supplements and subsidies will help on all fronts and strengthen Maine’s workforce in the process.
Each year in Maine, 166,000 family caregivers provide an estimated 155 million hours of unpaid care. Many of them put their careers on hold or at risk to do it. Without paid leave, we all pay the price. Caregiver earnings and savings can be permanently and severely stunted, workforce shortages worsened and economic activity depressed. Enacting a strong paid family and medical leave program (LD 1964) isn’t just good for the financial security of workers. It’s also good for business. Paid leave programs reduce workforce drop-out rates and turnover, improve morale and level the playing field for businesses that might not otherwise be able to afford worker-attracting benefits. Another bill, LD 1718, would provide full-time direct care workers a tuition benefit, which they or their immediate family could use to advance their education, helping to retain and attract professional caregivers.
Similarly bold thinking is needed to address the acute and costly crisis resulting from the lack of access to affordable child care. While complex, the primary drivers of the child care crisis are low wages that push skilled workers away, and high costs that parents can’t afford. While infant care in Maine currently costs more than in-state college tuition, there are as many as three children under age 5 waiting for each spot. A 2021 survey found 85 percent of child care centers in Maine have staffing shortages, with low wages overwhelmingly identified as the biggest barrier to recruitment. Early childhood education is as essential to children’s development as it is to working parents’ jobs, and it demands public investment commensurate with that of primary and secondary education. We believe boosting child care wage supplements and extending eligibility to subsidies (LD 1726) is the best way to start.
Family friendly policies not only help workers balance their jobs and personal responsibilities, but attract workers and keep them in the labor force, too. Maine’s workforce is made up of family members, not factory machines. It’s time to give them and their employers the tools they need to get the job done — at work and at home.