Proposed legislation in Olympia aims to ease the burden of child care costs for Washington families by allowing businesses to help their employees pay for it.

Under House Bill 1564, businesses could reduce the amount they spend on business and occupation taxes by the amount they pay for child care assistance to workers.

State Rep. Joshua Penner, R-Orting, who authored the bill, said prices for child care in the state can exceed the cost of college tuition.

“That’s just a really tough position that we put our workers in – that they have to decide whether or not to be underemployed or forgo opportunities in order to get good child care,” he said.

Nearly 40% of Washington parents have reported quitting a job or being fired because of child care challenges, costing families almost $7 billion annually in lost income. The bill was just introduced and is in the House Finance Committee.

Penner added that if a business didn’t use the full tax benefit in one year, the bill would allow it to apply the remaining amount to the following year. He said he isn’t worried about the potential loss of tax revenue for Washington state.

“I think nothing is more efficient than those B&O taxes being directly applied to child care for the workers within that business,” he said.

Washington ranks seventh, just behind Oregon, for the least affordable infant care in the country, with an average year of full-time care topping $20,000. Penner said many factors, including low pay for providers and the high cost of running a child care business, have driven up price tags for families. He said the bill has bipartisan support.

This story was originally published by Washington News Service, a bureau of Public News Service, a national newswire with a local focus with state-level, public interest news.