TIME TO STOP CALLING IT DAY CARE

August 8, 1997

Chicago Tribune

EDITORIAL

For the thousands of parents in Chicago who work the night shift, professional child care isn't just scarce; it's illegal.

But the Chicago City Council can change that outrageous situation by passing an ordinance introduced by Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) that would strike from the city's day-care law a regulation forbidding day-care centers to operate after 9 p.m.

What possible reason can there be for city regulation of the hours of the day-care business? Especially when the regulation's effect is to prevent many potential workers--particularly single parents--from taking off-hours jobs, or at least makes it more difficult for them to do so.

Shiller's ordinance removing restrictions on the hours that child-care facilities may operate deserves speedy passage by the council.

Apparently originally intended to prevent parents from parking their children in day care around the clock, the regulation is out of touch with the realities of the modern workforce.

Fewer than a third of employed Americans 18 and older work traditional 9-to-5 jobs, according to a 1991 analysis by the U.S. Census Bureau. And the evening and overnight jobs tend to be entry-level positions held by less-educated and low-skill workers.

In Chicago, for example, just over 35 percent of entry-level jobs require non-standard working hours. That's particularly important where child care is concerned, because women make up a significant portion of the non-skilled labor force.

What's more, with state welfare reforms requiring aid recipients to find jobs or lose benefits, far more unskilled, single mothers will be joining that workforce. Right now, the state law says they must work, but the city law says their children can't be in child care after 9 p.m. What is a mother trying to get off welfare to make of that?

Far from restricting late-night child care hours, the city--and the state--should be encouraging them. Because the sad fact is that even after the time restriction is removed, the cost of basic child care is often beyond the means of a minimum-wage worker.

In the spring session, the Illinois General Assembly increased state allocations for child-care subsidies for the working poor but did not include incentives for providers to offer off-hours care.

Of course, the strongest incentive would be the existence of significant demand. The marketplace is doing its share in that regard. But the City Council could give it a big boost by simply making after-hours child care legal.

Copyright © 1997 Chicago Tribune Company