Early care and education professionals have historically faced substantial obstacles when it comes to maintaining a healthy and motivated workforce. In 2019 child care workers were both paid less than their K-8 counterparts and had a significantly higher rate of poverty than the average worker in the state of Kansas. A lack of substantial benefits such as healthcare and paid time off contribute to the precarious economic situations early care and education workers often find themselves in. Fast forward to today and that situation has largely remained unchanged and the factors contributing to the instability in the labor force still persist.
During the pandemic the workforce of the early care and education sector contracted by hundreds of thousands of workers nationwide and is still around 50k workers smaller than before the pandemic. This large-scale contraction, along with previously present systemic factors, has resulted in a stunning 80,000 worker shortage in the state of Kansas. The pandemic, while so detrimental to the industry as a whole, has also highlighted the need for real change within the system that we operate under. While there has been significant progress made towards the goal of increasing the number of available providers and capacity there remains much work to be done.
Context
Low wages and mediocre wage gains have long plagued the early care and education sector for a variety of reasons. One of the driving historical factors behind the continued undervaluing of the early care and education workforce stems from outdated perceptions and understandings about the nature of early childcare. One study from Nebraska points out that the “primary task of the caregiver was once seen as nothing more than keeping young children clean, fed and entertained.” However, as the report goes on to point out, the science behind early care shows that during this critical period of development (ages 0-5) many cognitive and social skills are learned from early care and education professionals.
In fact, approximately 90 percent of the brain is developed before the age of 5 making the early care and education system essential in giving children the social and cognitive foundations that they need to succeed in the future. Studies have shown that children who took part in Head Start and Early Head Start programs saw markedly better outcomes, not only in cognitive ability, but in social skills as well. As we grapple with the challenges presented to us by the advent of technologies like social media and smartphones, the ability to effectively interact, communicate and empathize with others is a necessary part of the basket of skills individuals will need to be successful going forward.
Despite the importance of the work that ECE professionals provide they are among the most poorly compensated professions in the country. According to data from the Office of Employment Statistics (OES), before the pandemic (2019), average wages in early care and education were among the lowest in the country with an average wage of $11.65 compared to the national average across all occupations at $19.14. Recently, occupations across the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum, including early care and education, have seen substantial wage gain. However, despite this recent uptick, childcare still remains poorly compensated due to the long-term wage freeze that took place in the preceding years.
In 2014, a follow up report was issued to the 1989 National Child Care Staffing Study which found that between 1997 and 2014 wages in ECE grew a paltry 1 percent compared to pre-school educators whose wages grew by 15 percent in the same period. From 2016 to 2024 average wages within the industry rose by nearly 30 percent resulting in the average pay going from $11.21 to $14.60. While increased wages are a welcome change in the industry, because of the mediocre gains of the previous years this hasn’t resulted in the early care industry becoming more competitive with other service sector jobs. According to BLS statistics in 2024 the average wages of early care workers, at $14.60, are still well below the national average across all occupations at $23.11.
The lack of competitive pay is not the only aspect of employment within early care and education that contributes to the precarious economic situations workers often find themselves in. While many center-based and educational settings have made strides in providing benefits such as health care and child care assistance this has simply not been the case for many family-based providers. One study conducted in North Carolina in 2012 found that only “half of the centers provided either full or partial assistance for health care services, and nearly 70 percent of programs provided full or partial assistance for childcare costs.” Meanwhile, for home providers “it is less common for early childhood professionals to receive any paid benefits, as programs often are small and run by a single individual.”
The lack of substantial benefits and low wages throughout the field combine to create a very unstable career path. This becomes more apparent when looking at the amount of ECE workers who either need to find a second job to supplement their income or turn to public support programs to fill the gaps. Another study conducted by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at Berkeley found that “nearly one-half (46 percent) of childcare workers resided in families enrolled in one or more public support programs annually, compared to 25 percent of the U.S. workforce as a whole.”. Retirement benefits are also largely absent from the field as well. According to recent data from the Economic Policy Institute, as of 2020 only 10.2 percent of the childcare workforce had access to retirement benefits compared to 35 percent of the rest of the workforce.
Conclusion
In totality, the outdated perceptions of the ECE profession have resulted in low wages, mediocre benefits and slow wage growth which has made hiring and retaining workers quite challenging. In addition, the existing disparities between ECE workers and the rest of the workforce were exacerbated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Already operating in one of the lowest compensated fields on average, wages for ECE workers are now lagging further behind. According to The Center for American Progress, between 2021-2022 the average wage for ECE workers was 2 percent lower than that of waiters and 19 percent less than substitute teachers.
The state of Kansas has largely recognized the need for more adequate support structures for ECE professionals. A 2023 report issued by a government task force assembled at the behest of Gov. Laura Kelly concluded that “adequate public investment and state policies that appropriately prepare, support, and compensate the early education workforce can remedy these dire conditions by establishing systems that benefit early educators and the children they care for and teach.”
This kind of direct investment into the ECE workforce would come as a welcome change for industry professionals. As mentioned previously, many ECE workers are sometimes forced to take part in public assistance programs and seek other forms of employment to make ends meet. One study conducted from 2007-2011 found that, between food stamps and federal EITC, (earned income tax credits) spending to ECE professionals alone amounted to over $1B annually nationwide. This dynamic is simply not reflective of the importance of early care and education. Scientific evidence shows that ECE workers are an essential part of successful development during childhood while the brain experiences an exponential growth period. Providing the future that we want to see for our children will not only take the continued commitment of the workers within the field but also a continued commitment from the community as we seek to raise the money needed to stabilize the early care and education system both in Kansas and nationwide.
