{"id":25559,"date":"2021-05-29T07:12:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-29T07:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=25559"},"modified":"2021-05-30T18:34:48","modified_gmt":"2021-05-30T18:34:48","slug":"the-typical-child-care-worker-in-the-us-earns-less-than-12-an-hour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/the-typical-child-care-worker-in-the-us-earns-less-than-12-an-hour\/","title":{"rendered":"The typical child care worker in the US earns less than $12 an hour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Melissa M. Jozwiak<\/a>, Texas A&M-San Antonio<\/a><\/em> and Carl Sheperis<\/a>, Texas A&M-San Antonio<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CC BY-NC-ND<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The American Families Plan, announced by President Joe Biden in April 2021<\/a>, aims to make child care more affordable for parents. Importantly, it also seeks to ensure caregivers are paid a living wage<\/a> \u2013 enough to meet basic needs given the local cost of living. If passed, all workers in child care and pre-K programs that receive federal subsidies would earn at least US$15 per hour. Preschool teachers and child care workers with similar qualifications as kindergarten teachers would be paid in line with what kindergarten teachers earn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, child care workers who care for infants and toddlers tend to earn much less than those who care for older children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, child care workers across the United States earned an average wage of $11.65<\/a> per hour. That includes people who worked in child care centers and schools as well as private homes. As a result, in several states, over 25%<\/a> of those workers \u2013 overwhelmingly women<\/a> \u2013 live at or below the poverty level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although early childhood caregivers saw a slight increase in wages in 2020, to $12.88 per hour<\/a>, it was a temporary bump due to some being classified as essential workers<\/a> or receiving hazard pay<\/a> during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The median annual income for a child care worker is about $25,500<\/a> for 12 months of work, compared to a preschool teacher\u2019s median salary of just under $32,000<\/a> for, often, 10 months. A kindergarten teacher, meanwhile, earns roughly $58,000<\/a>, typically for 10 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critical development years<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As experts in child development<\/a> and infant and toddler mental health<\/a>, we know how important high-quality care is for a child\u2019s development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A child\u2019s brain develops rapidly from ages 0-5 when the foundational structures<\/a> for learning and human interaction are established. Research shows that sensitive and stimulating caregiving<\/a>, where materials and experiences are carefully selected to engage a child\u2019s senses, set off a series of connections between neurons in their brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A caregiver helps a child thrive by providing consistent attention, back-and-forth communication<\/a> and emotional responsiveness \u2013 during routine times of diapering and feeding, as well as during planned activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Failure to respond or responses that are provided by a primary caregiver experiencing higher levels of anxiety<\/a> have been shown to have an impact on the way the child\u2019s brain develops<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Impact of low wages<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to the Center for the Study of Child Care at University of California Berkeley, caregivers in only 10 states<\/a> are paid what\u2019s considered a living wage. As a result, nearly half of this workforce nationwide depends on public income support programs like food stamps or Medicaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The salary inequities can\u2019t be explained away by lower levels of academic training or easier workdays. Early childhood educators with bachelor\u2019s degrees earn as little as half<\/a> of what K-8 teachers with the same credentials earn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And whether caregivers are sitting on the floor playing with a child or lifting them into highchairs, the job is physically demanding \u2013 especially in states<\/a> like Florida and Texas where one caregiver may be responsible for 10 or more toddlers. Plus, the average toddler weighs over 25 pounds<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Low wages, few benefits, stressful work conditions and feeling like their work isn\u2019t valued are factors affecting the high turnover rates<\/a> and staffing shortage in child care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A shortage of qualified staff hurts employers, but it also affects the young children who depend on them for care. Continuously changing caregivers influences quality of interaction and attachment<\/a>. During such a critical period of growth in a child\u2019s life, when development depends on the caregiver\u2019s attention to a child, we believe caregivers should be paid a wage that makes it possible for them to afford health care \u2013 including mental health services, should they be needed \u2013 and minimizes distraction from worries about their own economic stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Like what you\u2019ve read? Want more?<\/em> Sign up for The Conversation\u2019s daily newsletter<\/a>.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melissa M. Jozwiak<\/a>, Associate Professor of Early Childhood, Texas A&M-San Antonio<\/a><\/em> and Carl Sheperis<\/a>, Professor of Mental Health Counseling, Texas A&M-San Antonio<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melissa M. Jozwiak, Texas A&M-San Antonio and Carl Sheperis, Texas A&M-San Antonio The American Families Plan, announced by President Joe Biden in April 2021, aims to make child care more affordable for parents. Importantly, it also seeks to ensure caregivers are paid a living wage \u2013 enough to meet basic needs given the local cost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":25560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292],"tags":[10006,4110,3560,1033,10005,3802,3678,9267,10004,3803,2197,7765,4092,3562],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25559"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25559"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25562,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25559\/revisions\/25562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}