A new study on Wisconsin’s child care workforce shows that child care workers continue to face low pay, weak benefits, and high turnover. The painful truth is that there has been very little progress since 1997. The Capital Times ran an article on the child care study focusing on the low pay for child care workers in Wisconsin.
The study indicates that child care teachers at centers earn a median of $10 an hour, while assistant child care teachers earn $8.50 an hour. Wages haven’t risen significantly over time, going back to 1997 (and even 1980). The median highest wage for teachers was $13 an hour and $9.75 an hour for assistant teachers. Only thirty percent of child care teachers receive retirement benefits and only 17 percent receive health insurance, according to the report. Child care teachers are well-educated, with about half of child care teachers having an associate degree or more.
The wages for family providers are also disturbing. Family providers work 55 hours a week 51 weeks a year, coming away with net earnings of $1,500 per month, or $7.50 per hour of work.
Recently there has been increasing focus on the quality of child care with the 2010 launching of YoungStar, Wisconsin’s Child Care Quality Rating and Improvement System. But the revenue from parent fees and public Wisconsin Shares subsidy payments appears to be woefully inadequate to attract and retain well-qualified child care teachers, largely due to stagnant wages and benefits. This fiscal dilemma has serious impacts. Skilled and engaged teachers are the key to quality early education.
The study was released by the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association. The survey was developed and conducted by the Survey Center at UW-Madison and COWS, a research center also at UW-Madison.
Dave Edie
Early Education Policy Analyst
