Infant Care Still a Hurdle in Workplace

In the San Fernando Valley and elsewhere, it is the rare working parent who can look to an employer for help with infant care.

Although advocates of employer-assisted child care say that more and more workers will be offered the benefit in coming years, few Valley companies now give assistance of any sort. And of those that do, some omit infant care.

Meanwhile, nearly everyone involved with the issue agrees that the need is great, particularly when it comes to day-care for infants.

“When we were opening we must have had three calls for infant care for every call asking about 2- to 5-year-olds,” said Dianne Philibosian, project director for the Center for Childhood Creativity, which a 13-company consortium opened in Woodland Hills last March. Although the center now accepts no children younger than 2, Philibosian said it eventually will provide infant care.

“You need a separate program for infants,” she said in explaining the delay. “We plan to enroll parents in a prenatal phase so we can support them through the whole planning of going back to work and having to leave an infant at 6 weeks. It’s going to be traumatic anyway, but we try to make it less traumatic.”

At three employer-assisted centers that offer infant care, officials said waiting lists are common.

“Many parents tell us it’s real hard to find good infant care,” said Sandy Safarik, assistant director of La Petite Academy, which opened in September at Valencia Industrial Park. “Infants are a lot more work.”

Safarik said the center cares for 12 infants, ages 6 weeks to 2 years, and has a waiting list of about 15 names. Total enrollment is 114 children. Employers paid start-up costs and absorb some operating costs, but do not directly subsidize enrollment fees. The charge for infants is $103 a week. By comparison, weekly fees for 2-year-olds run $79.

In its sixth year of operation, Family Connection in Simi Valley is the oldest employer-assisted child-care center in the Valley area. It is run by Simi Adventist Hospital and the bank card division of First Interstate Bank.

“We have always had an infant waiting list and it has always been longer than the ones for older kids,” said director Sandy Englen.

Twelve of the center’s 92 children are infants, 6 weeks to 2 years. Their parents pay $1.85 an hour, compared to $1.50 an hour for older children. Simi Adventist, which founded the center, pays rent on the building and absorbs some other operating costs. First Interstate contributes $80 a month for each employee’s child using the center full time.

Care for infants at Horace Mann Infant/Toddler Preschool Center in Burbank costs $127 a week. Director Mary Beirne said there are 32 infants at the center and the waiting list has at least 40 names. Seven Burbank companies contributed $10,000 each to start the center, which is run by the Burbank Unified School District.

Opening a center is not the only way for employers to help workers meet child-care needs. Nancy Hipes of Pentek Pension Services in Westlake Village, a company that sets up such benefit programs as child care, health care and retirement plans, said one method enables workers to pay child-care fees with pretax dollars.

“It’s called a reimbursement account,” Hipes said. “It doesn’t cost the employer anything except the administration costs, which are tax deductible, and it saves the employee money.”

The IRS-approved plan allows an employee to earmark part of his or her salary for child care, Hipes said, with the money being paid to a child-care provider before any federal income tax is deducted. Hipes said her firm has set up such accounts at several companies in Orange County, but only two in the Valley.

Only 4,000 Companies

“Across the entire country there are only 4,000 companies doing anything to help their employees with child care,” Hipes said. “It’s pretty sad when you think of how many people are working in the U.S. Employees are their most valuable resource and it is affecting their ability to work in a productive manner.”

There are, however, signs that more employers may help with child care in coming years. A recent one-day seminar on the subject staged by the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. drew representatives of about 25 companies.

Among them was Ann Little, president of Universal Benefits Insurance Agency in Universal City.

“We’re definitely going to have some kind of program, starting for children at six weeks,” Little said. “We have so many employees having babies, it’s going to help with morale and absenteeism.”

Robert Freeman, manager of corporate services for Texaco in Los Angeles, said his department also is considering ways to help provide care for children of employees. Freeman said Texaco’s Universal City office has 85 female secretaries.

“There are so many women in the work force now, and so many getting into management, that it’s important that something be done,” he said.

Infant care is particularly important, Freeman said, because the company likes to have new mothers return to work as soon as possible.