Child Care Is Not Employer’s Responsibility

The last line of the comments by Sue Horton really caught my attention (“For Working Parents, the Hardest Job Is Finding Quality Child Care,” March 1). Her assumption that employers need an attitude adjustment to recognize the need and supply child care attests to the fact that she knows not of what she speaks.

My husband and I own a company in East Los Angeles that employs 275 people. We work around the clock in an industry that could not function with flex time. In addition, it is a business that has a very low profit margin, and, in fact, barely survived the recession of the last three years. But, survive it did, and in doing so, provides income to our employees as well as people in other businesses with whom we deal. Were we to provide child-care facilities and personnel for our employees, we would be obliged to do it around the clock. To do that, we would be obliged to not pay for something else. Since there is no real profit with which to do so, what would Ms. Horton suggest that we drop? Workers’ compensation insurance? Unemployment insurance? Pollution abatement? Liability insurance?

The fact is, we don’t have those choices. They are all mandated by law, so those are costs we must bear. We must make choices, and the choice we made was to stay in business without frills, but with jobs. Yes, I did say frills. Child care is not the responsibility of the employer, although we do pay a high price when our employees do not have adequate child care and must miss work frequently. Are we unique in our situation? No. I do suggest that Ms. Horton, both as a journalist and an employee, check her facts before she makes judgments of an entire segment of society.

CLAIRE G. GERING

Sherman Oaks