In first year, Child Care Works coalition wage supplement program showing positive results

MASON CITY — Business leaders received an update this morning on the Cerro Gordo Child Care Works coalition, an effort to make sure every child in the county has access to reliable child care.

Last year, the Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health received a grant from the de Beaumont Foundation to tackle the problem of accessible, affordable child care in the county. Cerro Gordo County was also one of 12 communities to receive matching state grant funds to address child care needs.

The biggest issue in Cerro Gordo County has been workforce, with a $2 an hour wage supplement program being started to help raise wages.

Kelli Gerdes of CG Public Health says the program is already showing a positive impact in the first year.  “This program is really to kind of stop the bleed of what we’re seeing in child care with closures and parents having to leave the workforce. Being able to boost those wages and see some immediate impact has been great and we want to sustain that and grow the program, because this isn’t just a north Iowa crisis, this is happening all across America.  We want to put some longevity to this and really show that the money that’s being invested locally is having some local immediate impact.”

Gerdes says the $2 an hour supplement goes a long ways to retain employees.  “No one wants to work for less than $10 an hour, that’s not a sustainable career path. These are some of our most vulnerable and influential future children that are coming into our communities, so we want to make sure they have quality care. $2 an hour isn’t huge, it’s about a 17% increase though in what their wages were to begin with. You add that to the fact that they could also be benefiting from free child care. That’s a significant benefit and perk to a job in this workforce, so we really think that all these things cumulatively make it enticing.”

Gerdes says all the child care providers in the county have bought into the coalition’s concept and are reaping the benefits.  “From a business standpoint, being able to get them back up to capacity and have a sound business model in place is going to be huge. This probably isn’t a long-term commitment of a $2 an hour wage from an employer’s standpoint or a state standpoint, but to be able to get these businesses back up to full capacity and to be able to generate their own revenue is huge. Since COVID, a lot of them, and even prior to COVID, they mentioned just not having enough workforce to stay at capacity and it was just a failing business model, so to get them back up and to be profitable is our goal too.”

  For more information about the coalition, click here