This story begins: 19th.
Last year, the Commerce Department made a historic first by requiring companies to apply for federal grant programs to: Providing a plan for providing child care The grant will come from the CHIPS/Science Act, which was passed in 2022 and provides $50 billion to expand semiconductor manufacturing and research in the United States.
Semiconductors, also known as microchips, are tiny wafers of circuits used in computers and smartphones as well as clean-energy technologies such as solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles. The United States is rushing to develop semiconductor manufacturing capacity to create jobs, reduce reliance on imports and prevent supply-chain problems revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
But for government efforts to rapidly expand semiconductor production to be effective, there needs to be enough people to fill those jobs: The semiconductor industry is projected to face a shortage of about 90,000 workers, and the construction industry is already struggling to fill more than 400,000 jobs.
One way to do this is to increase the number of women in these jobs. 4 percent of construction workers and 29 percent of manufacturing The U.S. workforce is dominated by women, which is why Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has been focused on solving the barriers these industries have historically faced, the most obvious of which is child care.
“This issue is not a social issue, it’s an economic issue and, frankly, a simple math problem,” Raimondo said in an emailed statement to The 19th. “To meet the national and economic security imperatives of the CHIPS for America program, we must figure out how to fill the hundreds of thousands of jobs we are creating, and we know that reliable, affordable child care is essential to bringing more women into the workforce.”
A year later, the child care promise is beginning to bear fruit. Seven companies have been announced as grant recipients so far, five of which have received more than $150 million, increasing the need for child care planning. With each announcement, new details are released about how companies will meet the child care requirements.
In April, the White House Micron said it will receive $6.1 billion in funding and has already begun construction on a new center that will serve 124 children directly across from the company’s headquarters and upcoming manufacturing facility in Idaho. Micron also plans to build a new child care facility there as part of its New York expansion.
“We recognize that there are systemic barriers to workforce entry and re-entry, including access to child care, which is why we are committed to providing child care options that support and expand our workforce and benefit the broader community,” Micron senior vice president April Arntzen said in a news release.
Intel is March grant recipients The company has invested more than $8 billion and already offers discounts to local child care centers and priority admissions for employees, and has pledged to increase discount access to even more providers, as well as pilot a reimbursement program for hourly workers.
“As part of our efforts to promote diversity and attract top talent, Intel is doubling our primary and backup child care programs to provide affordable, accessible, high-quality child care to employees at all locations,” a company spokesperson said in an email on Tuesday. “We believe employees should not have to choose between career advancement and juggling the high cost of child care.”
Other companies, including Samsung, Funding announcementThe company said it is exploring options with the Department of Commerce as those contracts are finalized.
A Commerce Department official told The 19th that she expects companies to work out more details in the coming months, but that the requirement will be tricky for employers who don’t have access to existing child care infrastructure. “Companies have actually been pretty proactive about providing assistance to employees with child care. … They generally recognize that child care is an obstacle to full labor force participation,” she said. But, she continued, “employers are sort of on their own.”
Child care advocates say it’s important to get these efforts right: If they’re not implemented thoughtfully, companies risk making the situation worse. child Nursing care crisisSeveral states are already making plans to send thousands of workers to areas struggling to meet the needs of their residents, and parents are already Wait a few months or years For day care.
“We’re optimistic for now because we see areas where things may be moving in the right direction,” Woods said. But, she continued, “a lot of businesses are really unsure about their next steps because child care is not necessarily a top priority.”
Experts noted on Tuesday that child care is rarely a one-size-fits-all system. While some parents see workplace child care as a convenient employee benefit, for others it may make more sense to leave their child at their current child care provider or use an in-home child care service. And different programs may be right for different kids, such as those with special needs or those whose first language is not English.
However, states can help employers meet these requirements in ways that are tailored to their local communities. For example, Oregon and New York have taken unique steps to address the impact of the child care crisis on manufacturing jobs and prepare their states for CHIPS funding.
New York State passed the Green CHIPS Act in 2022, which provides tax incentives for companies to expand semiconductor manufacturing in the state. Like federal law, the act has a child care mandate. As a result, the state is working with Micron to create child care options that meet the needs of the local community as well as Micron’s employees. It is investing in programs to train in-home caregivers, as well as providing $500,000 to the YMCA to expand child care services in the area. The company also announced plans to partner with local child care centers to subsidize costs for employees who need options other than workplace care.
In Oregon, lawmakers took a different approach when they passed the CHIPS Child Care Fund in March. Businesses that receive CHIPS money can contribute to the fund to meet child care requirements rather than coming up with solutions themselves. Regan Gray, child care policy counsel for Families Forward Oregon, an advocacy group that helped write the law, said the law empowers community partners who know best the child care needs in their area. It’s like saying, “We’re going to let the child care experts take care of it, and you’re going to be the semiconductor manufacturing experts,” she said.
Oregon’s funds do two things: They build on an existing program that uses federal highway assistance funds to provide child care assistance to workers in job training programs and extend payments for up to five years after the end of their apprenticeship. The funds can also be used to help expand child care facilities, train staff, create additional slots, or extend hours to meet the needs of construction workers building semiconductor facilities.
Advocates now plan to push other bills to expand the fund to meet the needs of parents who end up working in these manufacturing plants.
Gray says this model solves several problems: It reduces burdens on employers and shifts federal funding into the public sphere, making it more likely to have a long-term impact on child care.
“My concern about giving child care funding to semiconductor companies is they’re not in the child care business. They’re not in the business of continuing to operate child care beyond the federal subsidy. This could result in huge losses of millions of dollars. Instead of giving funding to child care providers who are operating in the child care business, we’re investing in these companies that are going to realize in a few years time that this is a real headache,” she said.
For experts like Gray, the problem is that the CHIPS fund is trying to make up for the failure to pass comprehensive child welfare legislation at the federal level. “How do we get more money into child welfare now that Build Back Better didn’t pass?” Gray asks. For the Commerce Department, it was like, “Let’s just stick some money in here,” Gray says.
That’s why Gray hopes more states will follow Oregon’s example and address a broad range of child care needs. “I feel like the purpose of this CHIPS requirement was to build a child care marketplace, not to build employer-sponsored child care,” Gray said.
But child care isn’t the only barrier women face in manufacturing or construction, says Ariane Hegewisch, program director for employment and income at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. [about these initiatives] There are two responses: One, everyone thinks it’s great that there’s so much focus on childcare. But some say childcare isn’t the biggest issue facing women working in the industry. “They say childcare is important, but non-discrimination, non-harassment, and proper support are important.”
If companies focus solely on providing child care assistance or priority admissions, employees could end up taking up existing child care slots.“We’ve been very vocal in saying that demand-side solutions — making child care more affordable for families — need to be aligned with plans to increase supply,” said Lee Woods, a senior policy associate at the Century Foundation, a center-left think tank that works on child care and other public policy issues.
To that end, the department also recently announced a voluntary “Women in Construction Framework” that grant recipients can join to help reach Raimondo’s goal of doubling the number of women in construction by 2030. The framework is essentially a set of best practices that female construction industry stakeholders say are needed to increase their workforce numbers, Hegewisch said.
This includes setting targets for CHIPS-funded projects to increase the number of women in the field, building partnerships with community organizations already working to recruit and train women, investing in the career paths of professional women, and ensuring discrimination doesn’t occur in the workplace.
Hegewisch, who has studied women in the construction industry and workforce development for nearly two decades, said there’s something inspiring about the current situation: Other federal agencies that allocate billions of dollars for infrastructure and clean energy projects, such as the Department of Transportation and the Department of Energy, are also looking for ways to hire more women. More women join the workforceAnd the staff behind the effort are “mostly women who really want to make a difference,” she said.
But holding companies accountable is essential to progress. Hegewisch hopes another federal move might help: The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs will reinstate the requirement for construction companies to report employee demographic data monthly. Federal contractors must ensure that women work 6.9 percent of construction project hours on any given project, but they can’t be held accountable without follow-up. Making this rule is one way to give the government more oversight, she says.
“What’s new now is there’s a lot of money,” Hegewisch said. “It’s public money, and with that money come expectations.”