NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — For every child in daycare, there’s a parent at work in our community.

“If they are in health care and they don’t have childcare, then they can’t go help other people who go to that health care site,” said Tyler Savage with EVMS Minus 9 to 5.

EVMS Minus 9 to 5 provided area daycares with stickers for parents and child care workers to wear Monday as part of A Day Without Child Care. The national movement aims to grab the attention of lawmakers as they seek affordable childcare and better pay for educators.

“If we don’t put our finances into that industry, then I think as a society we’re all going to suffer,” said Children’s Harbor CEO Wayne Curtis Bell Jr.

At Children’s Harbor in Norfolk, teachers make $15 an hour, on average.

“Our highest [paid] teacher probably is under $18 an hour,” Bell said. “And so, that’s not a lot of money in today’s world when you have inflation and rising costs across the board.”

Parents pay between $200 and $400 per week per child, Bell said, or around $15,000 per year.

Shelly Anne Byers, director of operations at Children’s Harbor, couldn’t believe it when she moved to the U.S. eight years ago.

“Because it’s not fair to the kids,” Byers said. “It’s not fair to the teachers that are in the classrooms and it’s definitely not fair to the parents to have to pick and choose what they’re going to do.”

Byers owned a daycare in Canada and said everyone paid $8 a day. All centers had the same curriculum and were subsidized by the government.

The Virginia Promise Partnership is now calling for a state investment of $275 million in fiscal year 2025 and $325 million in fiscal year 2026.

“Certainly, I think we need to put more focus back into properly paying teachers because of the value that they bring to society,” Bell said.

Without more government funding, activists said more than 35,000 children could lose access to childcare — impacting more than 37,000 parents and employers.