By Karen D'Souza, EdSource, February 24, 2021
Even before the pandemic pushed the early childhood sector into crisis, California educators were paying a wage penalty for working with younger children, according to a new report from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) at the University of California at Berkeley.
Preschool teachers and child care workers earn 38% less than their colleagues in the K-8 system, the report says. This explains why 17% of early childhood educators live in poverty in California. That’s almost 7 times the poverty rate for the state’s K-8 teachers. Those are some key findings from the 2020 Early Childhood Workforce Index, a biennial report that tracks pay for early childhood jobs, the state poverty rate and a range of other workforce policies. All across the country, the research reveals, childcare workers often earn poverty wages.
“The crisis existed before the pandemic but increasingly folks are seeing how critical child care is to the economy,” report co-author Caitlin McLean, a senior research specialist at Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. “My hope is that the heightened awareness of this crisis prompts us to make a real change. Child care workers are among the lowest-paid workforce in the country. We have it backwards. The early years are critical for brain development. We need our best and brightest taking care of our youngest children.”
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