About Stephen Kramer
Stephen Kramer, CEO of Bright Horizons, has stated that a lack of affordable, high-quality childcare is holding back the U.S. economy by preventing working parents from fully participating in the workforce. He has argued that the primary driver of childcare costs is the expense of attracting, retaining, and training high-quality teachers, which he described as the largest component of any childcare organization's cost structure. Kramer has advocated for a multi-pronged approach to address the issue, including direct government subsidies, tax incentives for families and employers, and increased investment from employers. He noted that Bright Horizons partners with 1,400 employer clients to provide on-site subsidized childcare and backup care, describing this employer support as a "critical support" for working families.
Kramer has said that working parents are becoming more vocal about prioritizing work-life balance and are willing to leave roles if their needs are not met. He identified the top requests from employees as access to affordable childcare, financial subsidies, and backup care for when regular arrangements break down. Kramer has also commented on the expiration of pandemic-era childcare stabilization grants, stating that while Bright Horizons managed its business in anticipation of the funding ending, many community-based providers may face significant challenges, potentially needing to raise tuition by 10-15%. He has described childcare as an "essential service" that allows parents to work and is foundational for the future workforce.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Stephen Kramer's recent appearances.
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Transcript (8 segments)
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Host0:05
Welcome back. The U.S. is heading for a so-called child care cliff, as key pandemic emergency relief funds expire tomorrow, leaving as many as 70,000 day care centers at risk of closing, according to the Century Foundation. It means more than 3 million children could lose their spot. But this is just the compounded trilemma of issues the industry was facing. Joining me now is Stephen Kramer, the CEO of Bright Horizons, with our senior economics reporter Steve Liesman. So what exactly sunsets tomorrow?
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Stephen Kramer0:43
The funding that has been a very valuable source of support for the child care industry is ending. We have always planned for this to end, and the focus of our work is gaining support from employers who have always provided valuable support to make sure employees had good access to high quality, affordable child care. That said, many providers have relied heavily on the support, as well as other government funds. So we do expect that there is going to be real challenge in the industry. But remember, child care providers, including us, are very focused on taking care of children and families and making sure they take care of their staff, as well. So we'll work through a difficult period. But ultimately, this is going to end up for most providers needing to get care from working parents that are already stressed by the tuitions they are charged, and additional fees will likely be levied, which will make it very difficult for employees that want to continue to work.
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Host1:55
On average, child care costs $15,000 a year. There are some headlines lately how it's exceeding the cost of college. How much difference specifically to a family's costs are these pandemic programs making it?
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Stephen Kramer2:08
So for some providers, it's quite significant. And so they may be in a position of having to increase tuition by as much as 10%, 15% to hardworking families. As I mentioned, at Bright Horizons, we have been planning for this. Our employer clients are very supportive of their working parents. But in the general communities, I think there is going to be a lot of challenge and placement of this back on families.
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Host2:37
So Steve Liesman, there's a great quote from one of the news pieces that says this profession makes all other professions possible. So when it comes to a time when we will see pressure on some younger families starting their student loan payments and so forth.
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Steve Liesman2:53
I mean, this is from the page of cutting off your nose to spite your face. Kelly, I'm here at the Latitude Conference where one of the focuses is on the Latino population community's contribution to GDP. I bring that up, because one of the great sources of labor and labor growth in this country has been the Latino community. One of the things that another source has been child care and the addition of women back into the workforce. If you look at that female participation rate, we are at 25-year highs. What makes that possible? Well, it has been a bit of a rebound in child care workers. So that participation rate, how have we run these strong numbers? Because women coming into the workforce. You don't put zombies to work. You can't put ghosts to work. You put people to work. And one of the ways people come to work is they come to work by having child care at home, however they get it. And the concern here is if you have an increase in the cost of child care, with all this great progress we've made, being able to run essentially an economy with lower inflation, and low unemployment, it may go away or it may be challenged if we lose some of this contribution, especially of females in the workplace.
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Host4:17
Investors still have your shares, up 28% this year. Maybe they think you benefit in the market share.
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Stephen Kramer4:27
The pandemic has certainly taught our society, government, employers, as well as working parents what an essential service really is. So as Steve just mentioned, this is the essential service that allows working parents to go to work. And it also, by the way, is the foundation of creating the workforce of the future, our young children. So it's critically important to recognize that the persistence of strong access
