It’s a common question: Why do parents spend so much on child care, yet early childhood educators earn so little? The average cost of child care is out of reach for many families and rivals college tuition, while early educators are among the lowest paid workers in the country. How is this possible?
High quality early care and education experiences, to which early educators are central, provide lasting benefits to children, our economy and society, but receive only minimal public investment. The Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley and Child Care Aware of America teamed up to create a new, short video to explain why parents cannot afford to pay and educators cannot afford to stay, and proposes a solution for a better way to support children, their families and early educators.
For a snapshot of the early care and education workforce in your state, please view the Index state profiles.
