Compensation Movement Archives

In the mid-1970s, small teacher groups popped up around the country as teachers sought out other teachers, discovered their shared struggles, and determined to seek the rights, raises, and respect they deserved.

Teachers and family child care providers used songs and chants to convey messages of power and self-determination.

“Rights, Raises, and Respect”

“I’m a Child Care Teacher”

In 1981, at the annual NAEYC conference in Detroit (MI), five local groups from five different states came together in person for the first time and created the NAEYC Child Care Employee Caucus, which would continue to meet every year. The Berkeley group became the Child Care Employee Project (CCEP), the communications hub of a national movement that took root and grew. Check this map to see if your state was involved by the 1990s.

Work in the early 1980s to create Model Contract language (MA, CT) and Model Personnel Policies (WI) led to an effort in the mid-1990s to gather postcard responses from teachers on what they needed to give their best to children. Their feedback shaped the Model Work Standards, which have been adapted to remain relevant today.

If the Shoe Fits tells of a long-ago kingdom where those caring for children were under a powerful spell to ignore their wages and working conditions.

Read the story of how they broke the spell.

“El salario y los beneficios son mejores que los de aquellos maestros que no están unionizados. A pesar de todo, esto no es suficiente.”

– Maria Torres, Maestra Preescolar

“Our pay and benefits are so much better than those of other teachers without a union. And yet, they are not enough.”

– Maria Torres, Preschool Teacher

“We work hard, we work long hours, and we go to school to provide the best experience we can for children and their families. In spite of all of these efforts, we consistently have to hear, ‘Sorry, but it’s not in the budget.’”

– Pat Holman, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1992

Teachers and family child care providers used songs and chants to convey messages of power and self-determination.

For some, taking even the smallest risk was a big challenge. For others, risk-taking had been an everyday experience. To grow their leadership skills, teachers took part in activities outside their comfort zone, like public speaking, engaging across racial and cultural lines, and dealing with conflict.

“Everything I do the first time is hard… Once you do it the first time, you can always say, ‘I did it before, I can do it again.’ And I did it!”

– Marcelina Johnson, Dorchester, MA Leadership Institute Participant, 1992

When teachers voiced their own needs, they were frequently called unprofessional, self-centered, and uncaring toward children. They responded by turning to one another for support and encouragement to continue speaking out.

“You can feel the energy that is generated, and that convinces and energizes me. I see people feeling comfortable about being honest and speaking from their hearts.”

– Barb Wiley, Seattle Worthy Wage Campaign, 1997

Teachers used the Job Shadow Toolkit to invite public figures to experience their jobs and be paid accordingly. The full toolkit can be found in Compensation Movement Resources and the full Greensboro article here.

Participation in leadership events was made accessible to teachers through funding that covered costs such as travel, child care, and lodging. Teachers from a wide variety of programs, communities, and cultural backgrounds were able to gather and create an intentionally diverse learning environment. Lasting relationships were built that fostered a sense of unity and sparked joy to sustain the work “for the long haul.”

In this version of the story, Cinderella learns to stand up for her rights.

Read the story here.

Mentoring programs, both formal and informal, gave teachers a sense of power and control over their own learning. Mentors were uplifted as they saw their skills in a new light, and proteges benefited from relationship-based learning with lasting impacts.

Read more

To fill gaps in their professional preparation, teachers developed resources and created learning opportunities to build their knowledge, skills, and confidence as empowered players among other advocates and policymakers who were less willing to challenge a harmful status quo.

Read the introduction to Beyond Just Working With Kids.

Teachers learned how to conduct salary surveys to educate the public and upend stereotypes about early educators. They viewed research as a strategy to attract media coverage and spoke about their findings in classes, conferences, and other public forums to draw others to their cause. The 1989 National Child Care Staffing Study, led by the Child Care Employee Project, was the first study to link quality of care for children with teacher wages and working conditions; it inspired the Worthy Wage Campaign.

Read: “At Work; Worthy Child-Care Pay Scales” – The New York Times

Teacher activists critiqued child care policies that repeatedly short-changed children, families, and early educators. While the movement did not raise salaries to “worthy” wages, it led to improvements in public financing to implement changes designed and proposed by early educators themselves.

Activists wove fun and creativity into their advocacy efforts, like delivering their messages to politicians along with bags of peanuts, cans of Play-Doh, and children’s artwork.

Teachers and family child care providers used songs and chants to convey messages of power and self-determination.

The story of ABC Child Care Center was read or performed before policymakers, in classes, at conferences, and in local communities to advocate for public policies designed to raise wages.

Read the story here.

“If l can testify at the White House… I know I can go back and organize in my own community.”

– Kristin Pickering, NCECW, 1995

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The movement was rooted in teachers telling their stories – first to each other and then to those who needed to hear them: the families they served, the employers they worked for, the leaders in the communities where they lived, the legislators who represented them…

I am a single mother with a B.S. in Early Childhood Education, yet I am on food stamps and live with my parents because I can’t afford rent. I am a full-time teacher.”

– Teacher, Sudbury, MA (from the pamphlet, Breaking the Silence, 1995)

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Every year, teachers in the Child Care Employee Caucus spoke out and took collective actions at the annual NAEYC conference, learning to deal with opposition from within the profession itself. Check out their original demands for change in 1981!

The “Little Red Hens” realize their collective power to sway others to help their cause. No more retorts of “Not I.”

Read the story to find out more.

Initiated by the Child Care Employee Caucus in 1991, the campaign designated a day in spring as a focal point for collective actions including rallies, program closures, virtual strikes, job shadowing, and more.

– Worthy Wage Day, 1992

The media amplified the voices of teachers across the country. Their collective actions and messages made headlines as well as radio and TV broadcasts.

– CBS News 1992

Teachers and family child care providers used songs and chants to convey messages of power and self-determination.