While child care costs increase, worker wages fail to reflect inflation, a new report finds.
The study released last week by the Center for Child Care Employment at University of California, Berkeley outlines wage differences for day care, preschool and kindergarten teachers, showing only a small increase since 1997.
The Childhood Workforce 25 Years After the National Staffing Study examined wage increases compared to inflation in the U.S. from 1997 to 2013, as well as the number of child care provider families receiving public assistance.
While California ranks one of the highest paid on the list, child care providers for children under preschool age made a mean income of $7.76 hourly in 1997, which, adjusting for inflation, would equal $11.26 in 2013 dollars. The actual mean income in 2013 for those workers was $11.86 - only a $.60 increase.
Of the 87,000 child care workers in the state last year, 46 percent of those are in families receiving at least one of four forms of public assistance. Those support programs include Federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
Staff turnover rates have increased while the quality of care has gone down, the center reports.
The organization is calling for public funding to provide higher wages, regionally-based entry level wages, salary increases by education level and training, professional workplace standards and any providers receiving public funding to meet the same compensation guidelines and work standards.
