Work & Family

Linking Economic Development and Child Care

The Economic Development & Child Care Research Technical Assitance Project

The Institute for Women’s Policy Research, the Alliance for Early Childhood Finance and Cornell University in New York, and Smart Start’s National Technical Assistance Center in North Carolina are undertaking a project to craft and advance new policy approaches that link child care with economic development.

The purpose of this project is threefold: 1) to promote pioneering public policy that applies economic development strategies to strengthen the early care and education sector; 2) to test those ideas at the local and state level by investing in Venture Grants; and 3) to bring these efforts to scale by building a network of innovative leaders from a variety of fields beyond early care and education, including finance, planning, and community and economic development, who can make early care and education a core part of economic development policy.

The project is being carried out by an interdisciplinary team of four collaborating organizations: the Alliance for Early Childhood Finance, Cornell University, Smart Start’s National Technical Assistance Center (NTAC), and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR). These groups bring together leaders in economic and community development and the early care and education field to design innovative economic development policy linked to early care and education. Through a series of small discussion groups and workshops, leaders come together to brainstorm new policy options. The collaborating organizations hope that the project will lead to greater visibility of the economic importance of early care and education, broader utilization of economic development approaches in developing, improving, and expanding early care and education, and greater involvement of a diverse group of professionals in policy discussions on economic development and early care and education.

Venture Grant Program
The Venture Grants provide funding to encourage communities, cities, and states to initiate new policies and programs that link economic development and child care. Special attention is placed on expanding the community of policy leaders for this work beyond traditional early care and education experts, to include planners, economic developers, and others.

2007-2008 Venture Grant Award Winners
2007 Request for Proposals
2006 Venture Grant Award Winners

Links:
Can Tax Strategies Help Promote and Finance Quality Early Care and Education Services? Conference Call Notes from November 13, 2006

Child Care as Economic Development
Cornell University, Department of City and Regional Planning

Assessing the Economic Impact of Child Care During Recessionary Times
Webinar, December 9, 2009
Mildred Warner, Ph.D., Professor, Cornell University
Moderated by Billie Young, National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center
View recording here
Slides and additional information available here

top

Preschool Cost Estimates

IWPR's Preschool Cost Estimate Model. Researchers have designed a model for estimating the cost of implementing universal pre-kindergarten in the states, taking into account a variety of implementation strategies and participation rates.  The Institute has also released a "how-to" manual demonstrating how other states can adapt the model to serve their specific policy needs:

• Meaningful Investments in Pre-K: Estimating the Per- Child Costs of Quality Programs
• The Price of School Readiness: A Tool for Estimating the Cost of Universal Preschool in the States
• The Cost of Universal Access to Quality Preschool in Illinois

The Status of Early Care and Education in the States

top

Paid Leave

Nearly half of all workers do not have paid sick days, including more than 22 million women. Even fewer have paid sick days policies allowing them to visit the doctor or stay home to care for sick children. Only one in four low-wage workers is provided with this health benefit. For those without paid sick days, short-term health needs can mean missing work and pay, or even being fired.

IWPR's research shows that paid sick days bring benefits to both employees and employers. Inadequate paid sick days policies lead to the spread of disease to co-workers, reduced productivity, and higher turnover, all of which are costly for employers. For workers, not having paid sick days can result in lost income, worse health outcomes for children, and increased need for health care resources.

To learn more about IWPR's research on paid sick days and how it is informing paid sick days expansion efforts, click here.

The Institute conducts research and provides technical assistance on paid family and medical leave, with support from the Ford Foundation and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.  Under the direction of Program Director Dr. Vicky Lovell, these activities evaluate the need for and anticipated impacts of paid leave programs.

Key elements of the paid leave project include:

Recent publications and testimony in the paid family and medical leave program include: 

Publications:

• The Institute for Women's Policy Research and Labor Resource Center Model for Paid Family and Medical Leave Simulation Model
• Sick At Work: Infected Employees in the Workplace During the H1N1 Pandemic
• The Need for Paid Parental Leave for Federal Employees: Adapting to a Changing Workforce
• Parents as Child Care Providers: A Menu of Parental Leave Models
• The Need for Paid Parental Leave for Federal Employees: Adapting to a Changing Workforce
• Some Small and Medium-Size Establishments Join Large Ones in Offering Paid Sick Days
• IWPR Responds to Proposed Changes to Family and Medical Leavee Act Regulations
• Valuing Good Health in California: The Cost and Benefits of the Healthy Families, Healthy Workplace Act of 2008
• Maternity Leave in the United States: Paid Parental Leave is still Not Standard, Even Among the Best U.S. Employers
• Women and Paid Sick Days: Crucial for Family Well-Being
• Valuing Good Health in San Francisco: The Costs and Benefits of a Proposed Paid Sick Days Policy
• Paid Sick Days Improve Public Health by Reducing the Spread of Disease
• Valuing Good Health in Massachusetts: An Estimate of Costs and Savings for the Paid Sick Days Act
• Valuing Good Health: An Estimate of Costs and Savings for the Healthy Families Act
• No Time to be Sick: Why Everyone Suffers When Workers Don't Have Paid Sick Leave
• Estimating the Benefits of Paid Family and Medical Leave: A Colloquium Report
• The Fiscal Viability of New Jersey Family Leave Insurance
• Paid Family and Medical Leave: Essential Support for Working Women and Men

IWPR Director of Research, Robert Drago, published a piece on paid sick leave in the MomsRising Blog in August 2010. You can read it here.

Testimony:

• The Costs and Benefits of Paid Sick Days in Illinois
• The Costs and Benefits of Paid Sick Days in Connecticut
• The Costs and Benefits of Paid Sick Days in Maine
• The Costs and Benefits of Paid Sick Days in New York City
• Testimony on Health and Family Care Leave for Federal Workers before the Joint Economic Committee and the House Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia
• Public Health and Paid Sick Days: Policy Action to Limit the Spread of Disease and Improve Health in Massachusetts
• Supporting Healthy Washington, DC Communities with a Minimum Paid Sick Days Standard
• The Healthy Families Act: Impacts on Workers, Businesses, the Economy, and Public Health

Valuing Good Health - IWPR Cost/Benefit Analyses:

• Massachusetts
• San Francisco
• California
• Milwaukee
• Illinois
• North Carolina
• New Hampshire
• New York City
• Maine

Paid Sick Days Toolkit
The Institute for Women’s Policy Research, has developed a tool to calculate how a paid sick days initiative will benefit workers in a particular state. These statistics demonstrate the widespread lack of paid sick days across the country—and reveal the benefits of a paid sick days standard for business, workers, and the economy.

IWPR’s tool can be used to calculate the number of workers by industry who have, or don't have, paid sick days. The tool can also be used to quantify approximate costs and benefits of paid sick days by state.

• Find information about the number of workers in your state, by the industries they work in.
• Calculate how many workers, and what share of workers in your state, do and do not have paid sick days.
• Estimate the savings and costs of a minimum paid sick days standard.
• Report your calculations with this template.
• Determine the portion of your state's workforce that is employed by smaller firms, which can help evaluate the employer-size threshold that's appropriate for your state.

Paid Sick Days Podcast
Listen as Kevin Miller discusses paid sick days and the H1N1 pandemic.
Click here to open the file.

top

Workplace Flexibility

Workplace flexibility and access to alternative work arrangements are crucial for America’s working families to help reconcile work-family responsibilities, stay competitive by pursuing training and education and help in the transition from work to retirement. When flexible work arrangements are available, both employers and employees benefit; when not, employees may be pushed out of employment altogether or be forced to choose work below their skill and experience level, leading to a loss of human capital for the whole economy. Many U.S. employers provide workplace flexibility, yet many others do not. One result is that highly educated women in the United States are less likely to be in employment than in any other of 20 high income nations.

This IWPR report reviews statutory employment rights aimed at increasing workers’ ability to change their working hours and arrangements in 20 high-income countries. It includes statutes providing a general right to alternative work arrangements as well as those targeting work-family reconciliation, lifelong learning, and gradual retirement, and argues that an explicit right to request flexible working can play an important role in preparing the U.S. economy for the future.

Statutory Routes to Workplace Flexibility in Cross-National Perspective

For an evaluation of the impact of flexible working statutes on gender equality and the access of to quality alternative work arrangements for women and men, prepared for the UK Equalities and Human Rights Commission, click here.

IWPR has collaborated with the Sloan Center on Aging & Work to produce a detailed overview of legal arrangements regarding workplace flexibility in the United States and 20 other high income countries, click here. An overview of the employment and social security rights of part-time workers in the United States and 20 other high income countries can be found here.