How to help your employees with summer childcare planning

School is out for the summer. Are your working families excited about this time? Or are they just trying to get by until the school bell rings again in the fall?

While the idea of summertime is usually depicted as carefree fun in the sun, the stark childcare reality for many families is quite different. The months-long summer break from school presents unique challenges for employees often trying to navigate an already tenuous childcare landscape.

Related: How employers can support employees through the childcare crisis

Employers have a crucial role to play here by supporting their workforce with employee childcare benefits, which are important year-round — but especially during the long summer months when children are out of school. Without the proper support, working families struggle to balance their childcare duties simultaneously with their career responsibilities.

Summer childcare challenges for working families

So what do these summer childcare problems look like? For many families, summer childcare arrangements are expensive, difficult to find or access, or don’t align with parent and guardian work schedules.

Along with so many other goods and services, the cost for care is going up. Summer camp and childcare arrangements are expensive, causing financial stress for families. It can be nearly impossible to find affordable summer programs with space, or sometimes even a functional waitlist. According to the latest WeeCare survey conducted in June, 2022, 68% of parents experienced challenges securing childcare for their children this summer; 38% of parents reported that the summer childcare they were able to find had a waitlist; and 24% of parents relying on daycare during summer were dealing with a waitlist.

With summer childcare difficult to secure, parents often have to sacrifice work or family life to juggle everything on their plates. Some employees must resort to staggering their work schedules to accommodate their childcare needs, resulting in disruptions to daily life. In the WeeCare.co survey, 66% of parents reported that they had to make job sacrifices that compromise their household income and/or job security due to a lack of childcare during summer.

Survey data also indicates how much the cost of childcare keeps increasing. One in three parents (33%) reported an increased cost of childcare in comparison to last year. Of those reporting higher costs:

• 31% said their summer childcare costs increased by 6-10%
• 29% reported their summer childcare costs increased by 11-20%
• 20% shared that their summer childcare costs increased by 21-30%
• 7% relayed that their summer childcare costs increased by 31-40%
• 7% described their summer childcare costs as increasing by 50% or more
• Only 6% of parents reported a moderate 5% increase of summer childcare costs

Surveyed parents paint a vivid picture of how these stark numbers are affecting their lives.

“It’s $1900/mo PLUS an extra $1k in August for the ‘summer program’ when daycare is closed for 2 weeks on their summer break,” reports one California family.

The support working families need

We know that employees with children are struggling with childcare in general and summer childcare challenges in particular. So what are the best ways to support them?

When talking to families for the WeeCare.co survey about what kind of support is needed to secure reliable, quality summer childcare, the most popular answers were:

• Work-provided/employer-sponsored childcare or referred daycares
• More spots open in local licensed daycares
• Government-subsidized childcare
• Employers can solve these summer childcare challenges

These childcare issues for working families may be daunting, yet there are solutions to the summertime woes facing so many parents! Employers can offer employee childcare benefits that working parents actually use.

According to the WeeCare.co survey, 93% of U.S. parents do not receive any form of childcare benefits from their employers that can be utilized to access summer childcare. Only 7% of parents receive childcare benefits that can be applied to summer childcare arrangements, and nearly 8 out of 10 parents (78%) report that the search for summer childcare is a source of anxiety and stress.

Among parents of school-aged children:

• 32% rely on grandparents and other family members for summer childcare
• 16% depend on daycare
• 5% utilize a part-time babysitter
• 5% enroll in summer day camps;
• 21% have no childcare secured this summer

Among parents of preschoolers:

• 17% rely on grandparents and other family members for summer childcare
• 34% depend on daycare
• 8% enroll in summer day camps
• 8% utilize nannies or babysitters
• 8% have not been able to find any childcare or are still looking for it

How employees can use childcare benefits for the summer

There are a number of flexible, affordable childcare benefits programs available to address the stressful childcare conundrums many families find themselves in.

Companies like WeeCare.co are tackling the childcare crisis head on and have experience working with employers to provide the employee childcare benefits that families need.

Programs like childcare assistance help working families find and access high-quality, affordable childcare — even in the summer. Employers can also offer childcare stipends to help offset considerable childcare costs, or provide backup care to their workforce. Backup care supports families when the unexpected occurs and regular childcare plans are disrupted at the last minute.

Whether a working parent utilizes their employee childcare benefits for summer daycare, a nanny, a babysitter, or other childcare provider, they will feel supported, stay focused at work and remain as productive as possible throughout the long summer break until kids return to school.

Jessica Chang is the CEO and Co-Founder of WeeCare, America’s largest childcare network. She is a vocal early childhood education advocate and mom of two.