Press Release

Early Care and Educational Staff Among Lowest-Paid Professions Despite Increased Awareness of Their Importance to the Quality of Care

Washington, D.C. – Despite growing recognition that early childhood education is the foundation upon which later success in school is built, wages for early care and education teaching staff rose a measly 0.6 percent in 2003, according to a new report released by the Center for the Child Care Workforce, a Project of the American Federation of Teachers Educational Foundation (CCW/AFTEF).

“While there is more attention than ever focused on the importance of early childhood education, those who care and who educate our young children continue to be among the lowest-paid professionals,” said Marci Young, director of CCW/AFTEF. “We are never going to achieve the high-quality early childhood education system that we know all children deserve if we do not invest in the workforce itself.”

The report, titled Current Data on the Salaries and Benefits of the U.S. Early Childhood Education Workforce, offers a state-by-state breakdown of wages for child care workers and preschool and kindergarten teachers, which demonstrates how poorly paid early care and education staff are compared to other education professionals. Child care workers’ mean hourly wage is $8.32 and preschool teachers’ is $10.67, compared to kindergarten teachers, who earn $20.38.

“The low pay and lack of benefits give very little incentive for people to enter the early care and education profession,” said Edward J. McElroy, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “That’s why the AFT is helping early childhood educators to organize and use their strength in numbers to demand policies and practices to increase wages, improve benefits and offer professional development opportunities – so that they can ensure that all children start school prepared to succeed.”

Other findings in the report include:

• Child care workers have a higher concentration of poverty-level jobs than almost any other occupation in the United States;
• Only 18 occupations out of 770 surveyed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported having lower mean wages than child care workers.
• The early care and education field has annual job turnover rates hovering between 25 percent and 40 percent;
• The number of states offering some form of wage incentive program for early care and education teaching staff has doubled to 15 since 2001;
• Wages for early care and education staff have decreased in 12 states and the District of Columbia since 2002. Those states are: Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah;

“If we are to attract and retain well-educated and better-trained early childhood education teachers, our nation must invest adequate resources to support this important workforce,” added Young.

The AFT represents 1.3 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; nurses and healthcare workers; and federal, state and local government employees.