Pleasanton, CA - October 7, 2020 --
Since the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic in America, small businesses and the self-employed have been struggling with reduced business and slashed incomes. In particular, daycare providers in California have been especially hard hit by the economic slowdown caused by COVID-19.
- Small in-home daycares have lost 80% of their business during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they are disqualified from government economic assistance because they work 80 hours a week.
- The California state government is urging self-employed providers to close their business rather than provide them with unemployment benefits.
- Daycare providers want to stay open but need government help to do so.
As the pandemic spread throughout the country, only those daycares caring for the children of essential workers were allowed to stay open. However, providers had to stop caring for all other children. Often, this led to daycares staying open to provide for just one child.
This had major economic consequences for small in-home daycares like Mullins Daycare of Pleasanton, California. While they, and others like them, were licensed to care for up to 6 children, they only earned income from one child. At full capacity, Pleasanton daycare like Mullins could earn up to $1200 a week; during the pandemic, they have been forced to survive off of just $200 due to the fact that they were only caring for one child.
According to Nancy Mullins, the owner, and operator of Pleasanton’s Mullins Daycare, this wouldn’t be a problem if daycare providers like her could access government assistance during the pandemic. However, currently in California, those who are self-employed and working full time 40 hours a week are not eligible for any unemployment benefits or pandemic economic assistance. This is despite the fact that daycare providers like Mullins work close to 80 hours a week for as little as $200.
The California state government encourages self-employed child care workers like Mullins to close their business and collect money from the government. However, many providers, including Mullins, don’t want to close their small businesses which they built from the ground up.
Despite this, they desperately need economic assistance from the state government. Mullins herself never received unemployment payments from the California Employment Development Department (EDD) and didn’t know why. Both she and her husband called and emailed the EDD repeatedly but never were able to speak to a live person.
You can help Pleasanton childcare providers and other small businesses by urging California Governor Gavin Newsom to suspend the hourly rule that dictates those working 40 hours or more cannot qualify for retroactive government assistance. Daycare providers want to help parents by caring for their children in this difficult time but they simply can’t survive on such a drastically reduced income. Make your voice heard by calling Gavin Newsome’s office at (916) 445-2841 or emailing him here: https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/gov40mail/
