State Profiles

North Carolina

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infant and toddler icon
734,550 Children age 0-5
early educator icon
37,400 Early childhood teaching workforce*

Early educators are engaged in incredibly difficult and complex work that has been recognized as essential to children’s learning and development, supportive for families, and foundational to the economy. In the best of times, educators do this work in conditions that undermine their well-being, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only deepened the harm caused to this workforce, nearly all of whom are women. Adequate public investment and state policies that appropriately prepare, support, and compensate the early education workforce can remedy these dire conditions by establishing systems that benefit early educators and the children they care for and teach.

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Earnings by Occupation
OccupationMedian wage
Child care worker$10.62
Preschool teacher$12.83
Center director$20.88
Kindergarten teacher$27.89
Elementary teacher$27.69
All workers$17.75
  • In 2019 the median wage for child care workers was $10.62, a 3% increase since 2017.
  • For preschool teachers the median wage was $12.83, a 1% decrease since 2017.
  • For preschool or child care center directors, the median wage was $20.88, a 5% decrease since 2017.

*Total includes the following occupations as defined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics (OES): “child care workers,” “preschool teachers, excluding special education,” “preschool teachers, special education”, “education administrators: preschool/child care center programs”. These data do not include the self-employed, although home-base child care assistants, who are employees, are likely included in the “child care worker” category. Due to the limited data available across states in the OES, state-based surveys or registries may provide more comprehensive estimates of the ECE workforce.

Early educators pay a penalty for working with younger children.

North Carolina early educators with a bachelor’s degree are paid 28.8 percent less than their colleagues in the K-8 system. The poverty rate for early educators in North Carolina is 17.6 percent, much higher than for North Carolina workers in general (10.6 percent) and 7.4 times as high as for K-8 teachers (2.4 percent).**

Early Childhood Workforce Policies
Qualifications & Educational Supports:
Edging forward
Pre-KBA minimum for lead teacher?Yes
CDA/equivalent minimum for assistant teacher?No
Licensed CentersBA minimum for director?No
BA minimum for lead teacher?No
CDA/equivalent minimum for assistant teacher?No
Licensed HomesBA minimum for lead teacher?No
CDA/equivalent minimum for assistant teacher?No
Scholarships to Support Educational PathwaysBA?Yes
AA?Yes
CDA or equivalent?Yes
Collects data on scholarship recipients?Yes
Work Environments:
Edging forward
CentersPaid time in professional development?Yes
Paid planning and/or preparation time?Yes
Salary schedule/benefits?Yes
HomesPaid time in professional development?No
Paid planning and/or preparation time?No
Salary schedule/benefits?No
Compensation & Financial Relief Strategies:
Edging forward
Salary parity for publicly funded pre-K teachers?Parity (some)
Compensation standards required?No
Compensation guidelines or plans to develop?Yes: guidelines
Earmarks for salaries in public funding?No
Financial relief: Stipend or tax credit?Yes
Financial relief: Bonus?Yes
Workforce Data:
Making headway
RegistryInclusive of all licensed settings?Not Available
Collects wage data?Not Available
Collects benefits data?Not Available
Collects race and ethnicity data?Not Available
Reports data publicly?Not Available
SurveyInclusive of all licensed settings?Licensed +
Collects wage data?Yes
Collects benefits data?Yes
Collects race and ethnicity data?Yes
Reports data publicly?Yes
Financial Resources:
Edging forward
State reported extra CCDF spending?No
Ratio of per-child pre-K to K-12 spending over 50%?Yes
Family & Income Support Policies
Income Supports:
Stalled
Refundable earned income tax credit?No
Higher than federal minimum wage, indexed for inflation?No
Refundable child care tax credit?No
Health & Well-Being Supports:
Stalled
Paid sick days law?No
Paid family leave law?No
Expanded Medicaid eligibility?No

Notes

*Early educators work in public- and private-sector homes, centers, and schools. This estimate includes the following occupations as defined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Occupational Employment Statistics: “child care workers,” “preschool teachers, excluding special education,” “preschool teachers, special education,” “education administrators: preschool/child care center programs.” These data do not include the self-employed, although home-based child care assistants, who are employees, are likely included in the “child care worker” category. This estimate is from 2019 and does not reflect employment changes as a result of the pandemic. Demographic characteristics such as race/ethnicity and gender are not reported due to a lack of comparable data across states. State-based surveys or registries may provide more comprehensive estimates of the ECE workforce. 

**Gould, E., Whitebook, M., Mokhiber, Z., & Austin, L. (2020). Financing Early Educator Quality: A Values-Based Budget for Every State. A series of state-by-state reports produced by the Economic Policy Institute and University of California Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. Retrieved from https://cscce.berkeley.edu/financing-early-educator-quality-a-values-based-budget-for-every-state/.

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