By Billy Haugland II, CEO, Haugland Group
Child care has become one of the most destabilizing costs facing working families. For many households, annual child care expenses now exceed $20,000 per child—consuming an unsustainable share of take-home pay before housing, transportation, or groceries are even considered. These are middle-class families who want to work, contribute, and stay in New York, but are being priced out by a system that has not kept pace with reality.
As an infrastructure builder, I’ve learned that when a foundational system fails, everything built on top of it becomes unstable. Child care is no different. When child care breaks down, workforce participation suffers, productivity declines, and families are forced into impossible trade-offs. That’s why child care must be recognized for what it truly is: essential infrastructure for a functioning economy.
Governor Kathy Hochul has rightly elevated this issue, urging both government and employers to become part of the solution. Her renewed focus in this year’s State of the State, along with practical tools like the employer toolkit developed by the Child Care Council of Suffolk, has helped move the conversation from awareness to action.
At Haugland Group, we chose not to wait. We implemented pre-tax child care support and fully fund the maximum allowable dependent-care benefit for our employees. We did this because reliable child care isn’t a perk—it’s a prerequisite for a stable workforce, safe job sites, and consistent execution. Supporting families and running a high-performing organization are not competing priorities; they are inseparable.
But employer action alone is not enough. Public policy must catch up to reality. Child care tax credits should reflect the true cost of care, and major infrastructure projects—especially those delivered under Project Labor Agreements—should treat child care support as standard workforce infrastructure. If we can plan for power, roads, and transit, we can plan for the systems that allow people to show up and do the work.
If New York is serious about retaining its workforce and sustaining its middle class, child care must be treated with the same urgency and investment as any other critical infrastructure. The cost of inaction—to families, employers, and the broader economy—is simply too high.