What are the demographics of the child care workforce, and how have those demographics

changed over time? How do we value the labor of early childhood educators (teachers,
directors, home-based providers)?

Whitebook, M.,McLean, C., and Austin, L.J.E, and Edwards, B. (2018). Early Childhood
Workforce Index-2018: Executive Summary, About the Workforce, & Early Childhood
Workforce Policies.
● major goal of early childhood services has been to relieve poverty among children, many
of these same efforts continue to generate poverty in the early care and education (ECE)
workforce
● predominantly female, ethnically and racially diverse, and often have children of their
own
● Inadequate levels of public financing and heavy reliance on families to cover the costs
render professional pay for early educators unattainable

● in all states in 2017 child care workers earned less than two-thirds of the median wage
for all occupations in the state
● 53% of childcare workers were part of families enrolled in at least one of four public
support and health care programs (EITC, CHIP, SNAP, TANF)
● Wage ​penalty​ for teachers working with infants and toddlers cp to those working
exclusively with 3-5s, falls disproportionately on black workers 52% of whom work with
youngest children
● Percent of states meeting family and income supports has barely increased on metrics
like paid sick and family leave, expanded medicare, and a state minimum wage higher
than federal one

Recommendations
● require a bachelor’s degree with ECE specialization for lead teachers and center
directors, financially support acquisition of new qualifications for existing employees
● Paid planning time
● Pay scales for all teaching and auxiliary roles and education levels, using living
● wage/self-sufficiency standards as a minimum
● For lead teachers with bachelor’s degrees, regardless of setting, the compensation
● standard should be at least parity with K-3 teachers
● Higher compensation will attract a more skilled and stable ECE workforce
● Determine cost gap b/w exisisting and needed resources, educate policymakers on why
this is a long term investment with benefits hugely outweight the cost
About the Workforce
● For the ECE workforce, there is no equivalent at the national level to the federally
supported K-12 School and Staffing Survey (SASS), a series of regularly updated
questionnaires that provide data about the K-12 workforce and their work settings
○ Most recent data for ECE is 2012
 ● Regulations are difficult because the categories of who is a child care provider are so
vast and the situations are extremely different

●
○ First two almost identical
● Less reliable data for home based provider earnings

Institute of Medicine (IOM) and National Research Council (NRC) (2016). Report in Brief
for Educators and Caregivers
● Children’s actual performance was six to eight times what was estimated by their own
preschool teachers as well as experts in educational development
● Workforce qualifications should be competency based and reflect foundational
knowledge
● Concrete pathways to B.A. including flexible scheduling around higher ed
● Supervised induction period for lead teachers
● Continuous improvement systems that have day to day feedback, take community
setting into account
● Closer relationships b/w ECE providers and other sectors like health care and social
services (wrap around)

Wat, A. (2017, June 29). Increasing Early Childhood Teachers’ Education, Compensation
and Diversity.
● 4 yr goal for EC educators is compatible with the goal of fostering a racially and
linguistically diverse workforce
● When NJ mandated this via its court, 4 years later 97% had B.A.s but % of af am
teachers dropped by 9% while hispanic teachers inc by 5%
● Couldn’t a drive to increase educational attainment AND compensation be a strategy to
recruit and retain a diverse workforce?
 ● Credit for prior learning, e.g. wisconsin

Washington, V. (2019, January 8). Elephants in the Room: Workforce Respect and Equity.
● We celebrate the amazing power of early brain development yet tolerate widespread
poverty and poor working conditions among those responsible for interacting with
children in ways intended to foster early brain development
● Representative leadership
○ democratic processes demand that the voices of early childhood educators –
those people who actually work with children every day – be heard
● Our expanding numbers adequately reflect the demographics of the children and
families served, especially among “new” roles such as coaches, mentors, state
specialists, and assessors