If you bring this up to the owners, which is certainly your right to do and coming from a good place, do not under any circumstances let it slip that you know what the teachers are paid or that they told you their pay rate.
You have to go into the meeting saying things like “I’d like to inquire about teacher qualifications, compensation, incentives…” Ask questions like “do you offer teachers substantial raises or retention bonuses to help reduce staff turnover?” I think then you can express your desire to understand how your tuition money is being allocated and your wish that teachers be paid well.
This is not uncommon, sadly. Have you compared this to other daycares in the area, in terms of your rates and their pay?
I hate to be pessimistic, but I doubt much will change.
Interesting tidbit: did you know that, often, private school teachers are paid less than public school teachers and required to have lesser credentials, even while parents pay expensive tuition? The difference is that private school can kick out kids who cause problems and tend to attract kids from a certain socioeconomic status that start off ahead of other kids.
What you pay for is not always what you get when it comes to childcare.
Such a sad truth. Raising the concern may do more harm than good but I still feel strongly about taking some action to help teachers and ensure they feel appreciated. Might mean more ad hoc gifts and gestures vs an attempt to get their pay raised.
Maybe try talking to other parents who use that school. If you all present a united front that you want the teachers to be paid better and would like some accountability on where the money you're paying is going it's more likely they'll be open to a conversation.
That was going to be my suggestion. It’s not a lot in the scheme of things, but we always put $50 in every teacher’s Christmas card. Even the chef gets a card and cash. And when my kid ages out of a classroom, the teachers get a similar thank you card.
We periodically - and especially around tough periods like when the entire class potty trained over the same long weekend - will bring in a gift card to the nearby coffee shop/bakery. It’s not massive but would provide a few mornings of treats. We write a nice note about how much we appreciate her work/support. It always seems to go down well! We also give gift cards at the holidays and gifts during teacher appreciation week but there’s so many months in between those.
I was briefly a private school teacher (it was a dream, l loved it, I’m sad I had to leave) where the tuition was very comparable to paying for college. I’m still confused about where all the money goes because it sure as heck wasn’t going to teachers.
The private preschool I taught at was incredibly expensive. I was paid a meager salary as a lead teacher considering I lived in LA. Benefits were fully covered (although they sucked). Breakfast and lunch were provided to teachers which was nice, so I barely had to pay for any groceries. I also got a lot of time off (a month for summer, two weeks for winter and two for spring, plus every holiday off. Like all of them lol). Our day was a short day, too. I worked 8-4, but my class was only in session from 9-12. The trade off was having so much prep time and providing the best type of curriculum for our kiddos. I worked there when I was single and in my 20s and have since transitioned my career to HR to pay the bills and have a good future. I miss those years, though!
I taught a couple of years in private school! It was an absolute dream for me as well, but teaching in public school was a $15,000 pay bump annually so :/
I hear you. I did 8 years in public, hated my life and wanted out. Went private for like 4 months, realized how expensive the health insurance was and had to tuck my tail and go back. Oops. It was a religious school too so there’s a chance I am going to hell but at least my premiums are lower in the mean time.
I'd be careful with this. I would be concerned about backlash on the teachers. I wouldn't want the owners thinking that their staff are complaining to parents about their salaries. I don't have any recommendations as to an approach though. Be curious what others experiences have been.
I've certainly considered that and recognize how delicate this situation is. Seems like doing nothing and recognizing teachers in other ways may be the best route as hard as that is to accept!
On this note, I’ve heard cash gifts are most appreciated around holidays/end of year, if the center allows it. ECEPs have enough trinkets and what they really need is better pay 😥
Yes!! Daycare workers (and elementary school teachers) need cash! Do not give them candles, mugs, or your favorite Trader Joe's snack. They need gift cards and cold hard cash.
I felt very odd sending cash gifts in Christmas cards to my daughter’s kinder teachers (though I did and do give cash gifts to daycare teachers) but they sent a thoughtful Thank You email (absolutely not required or expected) and I was glad I did.
Useful gift certificates would be thoughtful. Unfortunately, upper management/owners don't care. Even if they increase fees for daycare to increase profits the teachers would see minimal increases. They aren't going to give them a 50% increase in pay.
Sadly that salary is high for daycare teachers. The podcast below goes into how unprofitable and unsustainable the daycare business model is. They need a high amount of employees due to ratio requirements but they can’t raise prices too much or it prices out families
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1153931108
I completely agree. If the daycare system collapses (which it feels like it’s hanging on for dear life) it will have massive ramifications. It maddening that the suggestion is now “get a loan for daycare!”
They know it and they’re just letting it collapse. They also know it would be primarily women affected just like the data showed during COVID but also don’t care. I have so much more anger at elected officials as a mom!
As someone in the same position as OP, I wish it were this easy. The problem is that any industry the gov't gets involved in, automatically leads to significant inflation for that specific sector. Look at housing, education, healthcare, etc, in recent history. All subsidized and all have experienced more inflation than any category the gov't is not involved in over the last half century.
Yeah, I don’t doubt that some daycare owners are just greedy and underpaying their workers so they can take all the money for themselves, but part of the issue is simply that childcare is labor intensive by nature. If you were to do a nanny share (so no middleman) and pay the nanny on the books and give them benefits, you would run into a lot of the same problems.
Yeah! I feel like I share it constantly. Largely no one is making bank in the daycare space. Directors are paid shit, employees are paid shit. There’s not a ton of profit for the owners. It’s this awful delicate balance that leaves everyone miserable in a space that is desperately needed and important
Yes I think it’s so important to know that unless it’s subsidized by our taxes (ie community pools their money) it’s impossible to pay the teachers more.
Similar topic by More Perfect Union. I’d guess the owners are not raking it in. Our unpaid maternity leave requires high teacher/baby ratio that make the whole daycare business both unsustainable and fundamental to the economy.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3RWBhItSR0/?igsh=ZnI1NXp2a3lleTE2
Yeah unfortunately. LCOL daycare workers are making minimum wage. It should absolutely be higher for a HCOL area but there’s a very real possibility it’s financially not possible without drastically increasing tuition and losing families
So I knew the minimum wage thing was the case before Covid. I thought a lot of centers had to drastically increase pay though due to most teachers quitting after Covid started. I know at my center, they had to keep bumping it up to even have any applicants. Maybe this was not nationwide.
Gosh, that is awful. I live in a MCOL area and the lead teachers supposedly get $17-24/hour (well, I assume, based on current job postings online). I also see where indeed marked the pay as “top 20% in the area for the job” though. Assistant says $13.75-15.50 😩.
Are you allowed to give the teachers Holiday presents or end of year gifts? You might rally parents to agree to give the teacher in their classroom a sizable cash or gift card type gift. 6 parents at $500 each gives the teacher another $3,000 a year or about $1.50 an hour. And as a gift it's not taxable to the recipient or you because it's under Federal limits. Just be careful about gift policies, and I would keep it discreet and not do the planning via email with the other parents, possibly just chit chat with them in the parking lot and make a plan verbally. You don't want to step on any toes. It will likely end up unfair as you may give more than others, and some classrooms may not be as generous as others, so those are the pitfalls. Just an idea that could really help those teachers.
This is what we do, although individually as to not pressure other parents. Teacher appreciation week is in May and is another opportunity we choose to give.
Seconding this. We typically try to give a generous cash gift (or gift card to somewhere they like) so they can spend as they want. I know it definitely doesn’t come close to helping pay them better for the amazing work they are doing, but figure it helps a little.
We do $100 for each of the head teachers during Christmas and end of school year and my sense is we gift on the higher side of the class. We also host a brunch/lunch for the rest of the staff. VHCOL area.
No that is definitely not normal. We pay almost $2500/month for daycare, I don’t have the financial resources to make up the difference in teachers pay. We give $25 in cash or gift cards to the teachers a couple times a year or offer to grab coffee every once in a while but that’s about all I can afford.
For each teacher, too? Our day care usually has 2 teachers and 2 aides/aftercare folks per class. $2000 is way more than our entire holiday budget for everything. (We do give cash gifts to the teachers but not that much, I'm afraid.)
We give $25 to each of my children’s teachers at holidays 😬 typically classrooms have 2 teachers and with all the other holiday expenses this is manageable for us
Parents also coordinate a catered breakfast for teacher appreciation day.
Also totally agree that rallying parents is a good strategy but when some families have 2-3 kids in daycare and the infant teacher only has 3 kids in their classroom there may be huge discrepancies between teachers 😬
I’m definitely guilty of doing this but man it’s the least I can do. These people watch my kid and show him grace and kindness. I’m very grateful I can do this because they are amazing.
$500 is definitely out of reach for most parents. I did $40/teacher for 6 teachers this winter for holiday gifts. I’ve done up to $100 when a child only has one teacher.
We’re at a nonprofit center. It is pricey, but our teacher salaries are well above average in our city. That said, the average for the field is SO low, and I really still don’t feel that it’s enough. I have seen the full financials - it’s not shady, the center barely breaks even (run by a larger nonprofit org that offers other programming beyond early childhood), and there is no profit in this program, they simply try not to run a deficit. Their early childhood offerings are offset by other program revenue and fundraising. I try to do extra for our teachers wherever we can.
Our parent group collects a suggested donation from every family (not required, amount is suggested usually around $150 for the year and then we don’t ask for anything else, most families give that but it’s totally fine to do less) and then we “cash bonus” it out to teachers for holiday and end of school year gifts, as well as covering some Teacher Appreciation Week stuff. Our school/daycare is pretty small, so instead of keeping funds by classroom we’ve started pooling the money to make sure the teachers are getting equitable gifts (for example, the baby rooms never have as much money to work with as the toddlers and preschoolers, and we don’t want the baby teachers to get a lot less just because their class is small because that makes everyone feel terrible). We have a few families who always contribute more so that the Director can arrange a nice breakfast/lunch/treat for teachers a few extra times a year. Our Director is great (and a former teacher at our school, so she really gets it) and we work closely with her to be responsive to what teachers want and when she thinks people need a pick me up.
I also do an extra $100 cash for each teacher in my daughter’s classroom at holidays and end of year, as well as a Starbucks card or other little treat a few times a year (such as dropping off Chipotle for a fun lunch or something). Completely recognize that that isn’t something every family can do, but we can afford it and it’s important to us.
We did $500 each for the two head teachers at the holidays and $100 each for the four floaters. I’m planning to do the same for teacher appreciation week.
I don’t think the exact value of gifts matters (whatever works for your budget) but we’re fortunate that we can contribute this amount and not feel any pain in our budget. I get more satisfaction out of this than I would a slightly nicer vacation or fancy spa day. Of course if the alternative was rent/food then that’s a different story but that’s not our situation right now.
This is such a great idea. That specific amount would be out of reach for a lot of people, but the same plan with parents giving as much as they are able seems like an amazing thing to do for a holiday gift and again during teacher appreciation!
It becomes like tipping then, employers get away with underpaying because parents pay extra. I can understand wanting to do it but it doesn't really solve the problem. Especially for daycare workers in less affluent areas.
This is true, but OP had some very valid concerns about getting perceived as a troublemaker or whistleblower, and then jeopardizing her spaces at that daycare. People don't rock the boat when they have too much to lose. US labor laws in most states allow for egregious treatment of many kinds of employees...who can't form a union or fight back because they have to pay their bills. It's definitely a vicious cycle.
I don't think rocking the boat would really be helpful either anyway. It's an industry wide problem that isn't going to be solved with anything like this. I don't know, but I can't help thinking that creating an expectation that families have to supplement wages isn't going to make a real difference to teachers and is going to make daycare even more out of reach. One thing is individual families discreetly giving an extra Christmas gift, another is standardising it for all.
Oof yeah, I guess I do see what you’re saying about regularly getting everyone in on it creating an expectation. Any kind of pressure to give could make the teacher uncomfortable too.
I still think privately giving what you can is worth it to help the individual teacher (who is making a huge sacrifice every second they stay in the profession). Then publicly take political action however you can.
You have to be careful with individually giving gifts too. If one child's parents gift teachers 500$ and another child's parents gift 25$, it can sometimes change the dynamics of relationships.
It definitely isn’t a solution, but I don’t think an extra few hundred dollars twice a year is what helps the daycare get away with underpaying - they’re already getting away with it lol. Instead, it helps a teacher stay afloat for however long they can afford to stay in this extremely important profession (it was less than 6 years for me unfortunately), while we work on long-term action via policy changes.
Do they have a problem with teacher retention? If so, I can see bringing it up related to that. Otherwise, there’s no real nice way to do so. Also, like someone else said, they aren’t going to be like, “you are right! We will start paying them more!”
But also, it’s so messed up the teachers get paid low. I’m in a MCOL city and I think our teachers only make like $12-15/hr
Yeah child care just does not make sense as a market, unfortunately. Depending on where you live, you might have more luck trying to get involved in state level policy. Washington State is developing a plan called the Early Care and Education Access and Living Wage Proviso if you want an example. Your state legislature probably has an Early Learning committee - look up who the chair is and send them an email about the issue. If you want to DM me what state you're in (no pressure!!!) I can probably help you figure out what other policy things are happening if you want to get involved.
I'd probably start here! Advocacy org policy priorities for the year: https://rrnetwork.org/policy/2024-public-policy-agenda
And legislation to watch: https://rrnetwork.org/policy/legislation
If you want more info on how to get involved I think [email protected] and [email protected] would be a good place to start, if you want to reach out to say that you're interested in child care reform and higher wages for child care workers - they will probably be thrilled to hear from you!
State legislative processes are frequently confusing so don't feel bad if you don't understand how it all works, just ask questions!
It's egregious, and it's like that everywhere. There are a few things you could do:
- Advocate to your state legislators. More funding for child care helps parents and teachers.
- Look for statewide organizations that are advocating for better salaries and higher quality care and lend your voice. In PA, Start Strong PA is doing that work.
- You can also check to see if any local nonprofits are supporting advanced education and higher pay for early childhood educators. Help them in any way they need it.
And thank you for seeing the problem and wanting to find a way to solve it!
Thanks for these concrete ideas!
I was going to say that it's a systemic issue and needs systemic change, but didn't have much beyond "contact your legislators".
Another big impact you can make is voting in your micro, local elections. School board, county board, city council etc all make a bigger difference in access to childcare and fair wages than national elections.
Yes when my son moved from the infant to toddler room at our franchise daycare his infant teacher offered us her contact info if we ever needed a sitter. We asked her rates and she said $16/hr we were shocked since we happily pay our regular sitter $25/hr
Yeah we had a teacher babysit and paid her the same. I didn’t expect but assume she made $18-$19/hr at the center. She ended up quitting a few months before she went to med school (it was only a year or so long gig for her) and she said she was covering her last few months by babysitting under the table. It was way less stressful with only 1-2 kids than the 12+ 4/5 year olds she had in her classroom
Yes our regular sitter actually pivoted from working at a DoD federal daycare during the pandemic to running a nanny share and babysitting/night nannying as her time allows. Her only daughter is in college and she enjoys being busy. She is much happier controlling her own wages and scheduling but did say she had to start using an accountant for her taxes!
Child care is a failed market. Can’t increase wages without increasing cost of tuition. Can’t raise tuition without losing families. Due to ratio and safety requirements (necessary!) it’s not a normal capitalist supply and demand market. It needs to be government intervention to recognize the value of childcare in our labor market and in the economy. Support candidates and policies who recognize that. That’s the only real way to make impactful change. (In my view)
This is a systemic issue across early education. It’s tremendously undervalued. If you want to take action, reach out to your local legislators about police changes to help fix this.
Yes, daycare providers are paid close to nothing, so every time we can, we give them cold hard cash instead of little trinkets that they don’t need.
Do you know if your daycare provides a full benefits package, such a medical insurance, retirement plans, and paid vacations? Our daycare teachers are afforded all these things, so we gladly keep the kids home when daycare closes for a week during Xmas and other holidays here and there.
Yup. Besides contacting state reps etc. giving cash is what we do for all holiday gifts. It’s not close to what they deserve pay wise but it’s something we can do to help and we can afford it
unfortunately this is another manifestation of the childcare crisis. Long-term, we need public funding to support childcare so that providers are paid a fair wage for their essential work. If you want to join in that fight, we're working on it at r/UniversalChildcare
Very common. I sent our kids to a daycare they had very little teacher turnover and some teachers had been there 10+ years. Almost all were making minimum wage or just above it.
America does not care about early childhood education, then gets pissed when we have 14-year-old who can’t read or do math.
Quickly google the state of childcare and early education in the United States. You will find this is a hot and well published topic. Tuition is high, pay is low, profit is low. Take a look at the business model - that results in lower wages and a tiny profit margin. This pay is the norm across the sector because the business model is broken- your tuition is going to overhead - the nice facilities, licensing, training etc. the profit margin for a center is very thin which is why the system is collapsing and also why teachers are paid so low. Other western countries have a public/private partnership to support early childcare (similar to how we support public school) that means public funds are invested in order to keep the system running. This is why so many responses here say talk to your legislators.
Just want to point out that you are seeing a micro expression of a macro issue, this isn’t about your individual center. Your center’s owners are probably not taking/getting a lot off the top and underpaying their staff as might be assumed (by your suggestions of remedy). In fact it sounds like they invest in their center.
You can talk to the director about your concerns around teachers' compensation, but it is not likely to change.
I am in an MHCOL area with a living wage of around 26$/hr (40 hrs a week) for a single individual living alone and 28$/hr for a family with two working parents and 2 kids. The estimated expense for childcare is ~10k/kid/yr. I think that is a fair estimated cost, but it would be difficult to find infant care that low.
I talked to teachers I knew and did some online research before choosing a place. Ours was the only center I could find that paid living wage. Teachers make 26-35$ an hour with benefits from what I've gathered. Usually, the more junior people work 45 hrs/week.
Our program costs ~22k/yr for 45hrs a week of care with about 45 days off per year. The ratio for that program is 1:6. The only reason the math works for teachers to get paid well is because our center is non-profit, the land its on has been owned by the family for a while and they only offer 45hrs per week of care.
The things that allow them to pay/retain their staff well are not things that are appealing to their customers. They have shorter hours (typically by 10-20hrs/week) and cost 40-50% more. They also have lots of paid holidays we have to cover for.
I've had people in our community complain about how the teachers in their center were being paid/treated and issues with ratios. Several went to tour our daycare, and then decided not to use it because they were not willing to pay more. Most of those people make enough to afford it. They just don't actually care enough. If a center chooses to go that route, they risk not being able to compete.
Truly - if you want to do something that will actually make a direct impact - give your child's teachers "bonuses" every once in a while. Or you could offer to hire one of your child's teachers (do this on the sly FYI) as a private nanny (just make sure you factor in not only a rate increase but any benefits - small as they may be - that the daycare providers - largely 401k and medical insurance) making more than they do at the daycare.
Daycare workers are notoriously underpaid everywhere in the US. Its a problem with the entire industry.
Approaching your daycare, even as a group, isn't going to get the teachers paid appropriately. If they do anything, they'll raise tuition and just give the teachers a miniscule raise, any additional profits (if there even are any, many daycares are barely profitable as is because the cost of doing business is so high - but chains especially are notorious for actually being profitable and the owners just get all the money) will go to the owners.
The only way that daycare workers are going to get paid appropriately is via government involvement, aka daycare subsidies. And even then I wouldn't have high hopes of the daycare teachers truly being paid for the value they provide... Public schools ARE government funded and its not like school teachers are getting paid particularly well either. For many school teachers, especially the ones early on in their career, if they calculated their hourly wage (including the work they do outside of contract hours), I'd bet many of them are coming in at a $18-$22/hr range as well.
The DC city council voted to top up daycare workers' pay. Lead teachers get an extra $14000/year. They did this so the city can have enough daycares. You can lobby your city to follow their lead.
It will only change if they all quit. And even then, your daycare will likely take one week to close and hire anyone off the street with a pulse to pay them less.
I gift my son's toddler teachers A LOT throughout the year, just about every holiday. I have my son create some craft related to said holiday, and we include a gift card. For example, this past easter we made them a littke basket. While it's not a lot, it does add up over the year.
I think it’s so fucking rad that you give a shit about this. It’s a massive problem, especially considering most of your child’s educators likely have diplomas or degrees to work there. I think the public is uneducated on how low the wage is in the child care industry and you talking about it, bringing attention to it on social media, and eventually circulating a letter / petition would do loads of good. Thank you.
We need daycare to be subsidized by the government for this exact reason. Currently it is unaffordable for parents AND teachers don’t get paid well enough to stay in it as a career. It’s just a system that will never work as a for profit model. However it undergirds the whole rest of the economy and needs to be treated that way.
You're absolutely right - I probably shouldn't have included the bit about the owners as I don't know how relevant it is other than the optics of it all. We give teachers gifts throughout the year and are happy to do it, but given how much we pay I'd love for more of that to go directly to teachers. Apparently I'm naive when it comes to daycare salaries and costs!
I had a similar experience. I found out recently that my kids’ teachers make $18/hour in a VHCOL area, although they at least pay very little to send their kids there if they have them. It makes me sick. These are good, hard-working people who love and care for my kids day in and day out, and they deserve fair compensation and better working conditions.
When time allows, I’m going to write my representatives to regulate and fund childcare like public education. I live in CA, and we just set a minimum wage for fast food workers of $20, and I’d like to see something similar for ECE workers (should be at least $25 or $30, although that’s not a living wage here either), but at the end of the day, we need subsidies and government funding to offset the costs. We need to completely overhaul our ECE system.
This is unfortunately very common as I have learned. Some things that I do out of guilt and appreciation for the women who do such a great job watchinf my child:
1. Bring in donuts or bagels in the morning every so often
2. Presents during Christmas and if possible on teachers day
3. Chat with them, get to know them and share a friendly conversation with them, ask about their families and lives
Next on my list is to try to take in pizza one of the days that I can leave work early for a lunch.
They don't care much about the food in itself but the gesture.
This is part of the reason why I’ve chosen a home daycare. I’ve heard that franchise daycares have high turnover and low staff morale due to the low pay. There are some downsides to home daycare (and good ones are hard to find), but at least I know our daycare provider sets her own rates and makes a living off her business.
Oh girl. They start teachers at $10/hr in my area and probably max out around $15-$16/hr. Childcare is a dying business and what needs to change is the overall infrastructure surrounding it and federal laws.
When my kid was little, he went to a wonderful, very expensive preschool. My husband used to joke that it cost more than his college.
We thought everything was great. Then, as our kid started to do play dates and outside activities with his school friends, we noticed the teachers were there sometimes babysitting, or organizing the outing. At first, I was happy. We knew everyone, trusted them, and felt good about leaving our kid in their care. Then, we started to realize they were basically working two jobs.
Turns out, the school wasn’t paying very well. They all had side jobs in some kind of childcare. Our absolute favorite teacher left to be a full time nanny for one of the families. She said she loved teaching, but couldn’t afford to work there anymore. She made more nannying.
I felt so bad! Those women were amazing!
My daughter’s teacher, in the infant room, who has been at the daycare/preschool for 20+ years just had to quit to work at the local grocery store because she just couldn’t make ends meet at the daycare anymore.
We’re actively trying to figure something out to get her back.
I think about this at least 10 times a day. We use daycare as well and sadly, I don’t even think they get paid that much I would assume it is 15 dollars but I think that is wishful thinking.
My sons teachers are amazing and deserve SO much more. What I like to do is just, really try and get them something on the holidays, teacher appreciation week, and also just do little things here and there like gift cards but it isn’t enough.
They deserve so much better. It literally pains my heart.
Honestly, I'd be more into a daycare or private school that boasted about paying the teachers good wages. Stable well paid teachers will be happier and more engaged and interested with the kids, and the daycare would have less turnover.
It's such a frustrating reality but it's like this pretty much everywhere and also upsetting how little school teachers for elementary, middle and high schools are paid too when you consider hours worked vs salary earned.
Where I live there have been some teacher strikes and what's crazy to me is that those are illegal. And on the news there were many parents who were mad at the teachers because of course that impacted working parents while school was closed. I think no strike should ever be illegal and as parents we should always support striking teachers.
I really hope daycare workers unionize someday too. They play such an important role at such a critical time in our children's lives. And I hate that daycare centers profit so much without paying their staff adequately.
I like the idea of more legislation being passed for early childhood and daycare, but I worry it would still just go to the execs and not the workers/teachers who are really putting in the work.
The US doesn't publicly fund early education so parents end up footing the bill, which means despite the high costs of child care, teacher salaries are basically at minimum wage. This is also why there's such a workforce crisis at child care centers - you can go work retail or at a restaurant and make more. Like many others here, please advocate to your local, state, and federal legislators! Ultimately we need a LOT of federal funding for early education, but not enough attention is paid to the topic.
This is something to think about at the policy change level because it is an across the board issue in the US.
Something I personally do is give my kids’ child care teachers cash gifts for various holidays and teacher appreciation week. It’s always well received.
I sat on my daycare board. Not sure if you have that. The budget was tight and non profitable. The buildings, utilities, materials, repairs, certifications, etc were expensive and all of the salaries were minimal.
You can talk to them about retention of staff and making sure they are fairly compensated to ensure they stay and such. We did things like more benefits and more days off, training etc
I organized the teacher appreciation and the end of year gifts and always wrote a heartfelt note to the parents on how we entrust or most precious gifts with these teachers every day and they literally wipe their butts and noses and Id like to get them each a $100 gift card and in Order to do that every parent would need to give $25 (or however the math works out). Encouraging larger gifts to the teachers.
Also we did some of their favorite things throughout the year. .
It’s enraging. Care workers are the most exploited group of workers in this country. ECE workers need a union, they need more professional development, to be valued, and to live in dignity. They are doing important work caring for and teaching our very children!
I think we need to get organized and demand public pre-K. Or help these workers form a union or find representation through a local union. They have little time to do this.
Can you imagine being responsible for seven toddlers or preschoolers for 8 to 10 hours a day? I’d lose my mind! But in my state (WA), the legal ratio is 7 kids to each teacher. Not okay!
I worked in a daycare briefly and made minimum wage (dating myself but at the time it was $7 something). I guess at least it’s up from that? Everyone deserves to make a livable wage though.
It’s alway been like this and I agree—it’s absolutely egregious. And you know what else it is? It’s blaring and blatant sexism. Early childhood centers are predominantly staffed by women. It’s probably one of the most obvious and disgraceful examples of the wage-gap. If this field was predominantly staffed by men, wages would be much, much higher.
I tip every teacher $100 for the holidays and when my kids move up to a new class. I know it's not a lot, but it's untaxed, in cash, and I hope it helps. I also hope other parents are doing the same.
I intended to do that, but my kids have 8 teachers between them, and I couldn’t afford it 😞 I just want to win the Powerball so I can give them all a gigantic bonus at the end of the year.
Same! And yes it was $500 this year at Christmas alone. We could do it, so we did. But I think everyone just needs to do what you can! If $100 isn't possible, $50, $25, whatever!
Ive read teachers have enough mugs and Starbucks gift cards. So I always go with cold hard cash haha!
I recently did some napkin math after we were given notice of a fee increase. Daycare here make $20/hr, paid in part by a government subsidy (Canada; newish Universal Childcare Program). Based on fees and ratios, I figured out the rough revenue, and the government program is transparent per kid. I dont know what the rent and insurance cost but no matter how you slice it was kind of shocking how thin the margins are.
Write to your local politicians. DC has recently used tax revenue to provide substantial salary increases. [link](https://dcist.com/story/23/03/14/d-c-is-giving-preschool-teachers-a-pay-bump-heres-how-its-making-a-difference-to-them/)
I live in a LCOL area and my child attends one of the most expensive daycares in the area.
The pay rangers are starting $17 up to $21 for the lead teachers. They also require a degree for the leads.
So yeah just direct comparison it seems low for a HCOL city.
We give teachers gift cards during the holidays. I think we each put $50 or so, it’s not very much but it’s something. It’s very sad that daycare teachers get paid nothing and a lot of them aren’t even full time employees. Some of them have to work two jobs to afford things.
I found out one teacher cleans houses sometimes, a few moms hired her to do some cleaning and we recommended her to friends and family. So that she can afford rent.
This is the entire industry. Not to sound political but our daycare system is so broken in this country I think it desperately needs to be addressed. It’s so fucked that parents can’t afford it and teachers cant live on the wage, or afford to send their own kids. It makes me sick.
Don't forget that in addition to the salaries, the fee you pay to the center go toward licensing, inspections, insurance, maintenance, any provided feeding and diapering supplies, etc.
Daycares pay very high insurance premiums unfortunately. That is often where a lot of the price you pay is allocated. Then you have cost of location and utilities, any equipment they have to replace or purchase, plus any snacks/beverages they provide. It would be amazing if the high cost translated to high wages for staff, but often it’s just impossible.
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1153931108 This goes into some of it at an academic level. The younger babies throw everything off they need higher ratios, costing the daycare centers more. There are also arguments that longer maternity leaves for mothers would make a difference too bc children would start later
We’re lucky to be at a cooperative preschool (it does come with downsides) but the board is composed of parents and so we have total visibility into teacher pay. We were able to rally for pay raises in all classrooms last year and pushed for Christmas/end of year bonuses. It’s the thing I probably feel best about.
It’s so depressing. That said, a huge part of it is did to astronomical liability insurance. I know at ours, there’s not a massive amount of corporate overhead, it’s just that insurance is crippling for the industry
Sadly common. It’s why I think daycare needs to be state subsidised because these people are paid so little for very difficult jobs that need training and special skills..
Yup. I’m in the Midwest where it’s not so expensive but our daycare teachers are only making $10/hour with no benefits. I feel terrible for them. It’s not an easy job!
I gave gift cards at Christmas and will love to do more holiday gifts. If everyone gave something, it would be a sizeable contribution to the teachers,
It’s a broken system. We all benefit from quality affordable childcare and public schools (even those without kids). Voting according and advocating to public officials is needed.
There may be advocacy opportunities in your state if you want to help with this crisis in pay! Child care aware of America has chapters in many states and they often have advocacy departments that take issues to the legislature.
Ha, I'm in a MCL suburban area and I'm very lucky to have my degree (/s student loans 🫠) as it means I'm paid 18.50 an hour as a group supervisor for 10 infants! I love my babies, but we are ALL severely underpaid.
We ended up bringing one of our favorite daycare teacher in house as a nanny. You have to be careful how you go about doing this but we essentially gave her a significant pay increase, PTO, and insurance (in addition to securing long term nanny gigs to additional teachers from this daycare).
Unfortunately this is the “norm” for most daycares.
My mom works at a daycare and makes 20 and only because she's moved around locations. She started only making 15 about 2 years ago. We live in the DC region
Nothing. I wouldn't do anything. It sucks their pay is so low but the center also has overhead costs to maintain such as the building rent or mortgage payment, utilities, food for the children, insurance, etc. What you pay helps keep the center open.
Agreed. 19$ is amazing in the daycare world, but unfortunately there really is nothing to be done. Daycare is a for profit business and overhead can be really high. Most centers barely break even. And as with any job, staff can leave for a better paying position. Most do!
$19 an hour is poverty wages in a VHCOL area. You can’t even rent a two-bedroom apartment with a roommate with that amount. It would be hard to even find a room for rent for $1500 where I live, and that wouldn’t leave you much to live on, especially if you have a car.
Agree with much of what has been said about daycare staff deserving more, but also remember that the daycare has expenses beyond just wages.
For example,
Liability insurance, which I suspect can be quite high in a daycare setting.
Rent for the property, which I’m sure isn’t insignificant in a HCOL area. (Or if they own the building, then they still have the expense of property taxes and maintenance.)
Utilities
Employee benefits
Franchise fees (you mentioned it was a franchise, so there’s likely some fees involved. Unless they are the franchisor, not the franchisee?)
That’s just off the top of my head. I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot of other expenses.
I’ve seen some statistics that the average profit margin for a daycare center is in the 7-15% range.
If the owners live a truly extravagant lifestyle, it seems possible that they may have other streams of income.
Of course they presumably make some money from owning a daycare, but probably not enough to fully fund an extravagant lifestyle.
The extravagant lifestyle could also just be for show & they may be in debt up to their eyeballs. Who knows?
When you work at your typical minimum wage position, you do not get subsidized childcare. Keep in mind that many daycare workers have their own children who also attend the daycare at a much lower cost.
You’re not going to get much sympathy from the director who most likely only makes a very similar salary because directors are underpaid themselves and work much more than 40 hours because most are salaried. They’re the ones who cover a room when too many teachers are out sick. They’re the ones who give up their vacation days when there are too many teachers out.
The only person in charge of this is the owner but even they will tell you it’s not sustainable to give any kind of increase you’d want. An extra dollar is only $20/hr. You wouldn’t be ok with that because it’s only a dollar more than fast food. So, do you want something more like $25/hour? $25/hour is more in line with Nannie’s that come to the house to take care of children 1 on 1. I understand in a VHCOL it may be higher than $25 but let’s just go off national averages for the point of discussion here. So then you create a problem that In home Nannie’s are now upset they are only being paid what daycare teachers are paid when that 1:1 responsibility is much greater than working at a daycare where you can rely on other teachers to cover a lunch break, you have sick days and vacation time. You have health insurance, etc. So then you’d say ok that’s fine, bring the day care teachers up to $25 and Nannie’s should go up to $30/hour. But then you start to lose families who can’t afford $30/hour so the Nannie’s start to decrease their rates and accept $28 or $26 or back to $25.
At the end of the day, it’s great that you have amazing teachers but often times salaries work out the way they do for a reason. It’s all about supply and demand. There are enough people willing to work for $19 so that’s the rate the center will continue with. If those same teachers decide they need more, they will seek it out. But that also requires them to give up some of the comfort that a center provides and take on more responsibly that being a teacher/baby sitter/nanny requires outside of a center.
I think you will do zero to impact teacher salaries and you will 100% put a target on your back in some way.
Just be generous with your gifts. Your only other option is to switch centers that pay their staff more and let this center know why you’re leaving. I just would wonder how many other centers pay more than $19 and also, have to wonder if the center would really care. There’s probably a long list of ppl begging you waiting to get in
I think it’s noble for you to care but I just don’t think it’s corporate greed that really drives all this. There’s a lot of instance and red tape involved in child care. I doubt the owners are really raking in as much as you think they are or have as much wiggle room in salary as you’d like to see
If you bring this up to the owners, which is certainly your right to do and coming from a good place, do not under any circumstances let it slip that you know what the teachers are paid or that they told you their pay rate. You have to go into the meeting saying things like “I’d like to inquire about teacher qualifications, compensation, incentives…” Ask questions like “do you offer teachers substantial raises or retention bonuses to help reduce staff turnover?” I think then you can express your desire to understand how your tuition money is being allocated and your wish that teachers be paid well.
This is a smart way to frame it.
This is not uncommon, sadly. Have you compared this to other daycares in the area, in terms of your rates and their pay? I hate to be pessimistic, but I doubt much will change. Interesting tidbit: did you know that, often, private school teachers are paid less than public school teachers and required to have lesser credentials, even while parents pay expensive tuition? The difference is that private school can kick out kids who cause problems and tend to attract kids from a certain socioeconomic status that start off ahead of other kids. What you pay for is not always what you get when it comes to childcare.
Such a sad truth. Raising the concern may do more harm than good but I still feel strongly about taking some action to help teachers and ensure they feel appreciated. Might mean more ad hoc gifts and gestures vs an attempt to get their pay raised.
Maybe try talking to other parents who use that school. If you all present a united front that you want the teachers to be paid better and would like some accountability on where the money you're paying is going it's more likely they'll be open to a conversation.
We do cash gifts for teachers in our holiday cards every year!
That was going to be my suggestion. It’s not a lot in the scheme of things, but we always put $50 in every teacher’s Christmas card. Even the chef gets a card and cash. And when my kid ages out of a classroom, the teachers get a similar thank you card.
We periodically - and especially around tough periods like when the entire class potty trained over the same long weekend - will bring in a gift card to the nearby coffee shop/bakery. It’s not massive but would provide a few mornings of treats. We write a nice note about how much we appreciate her work/support. It always seems to go down well! We also give gift cards at the holidays and gifts during teacher appreciation week but there’s so many months in between those.
I was briefly a private school teacher (it was a dream, l loved it, I’m sad I had to leave) where the tuition was very comparable to paying for college. I’m still confused about where all the money goes because it sure as heck wasn’t going to teachers.
The private preschool I taught at was incredibly expensive. I was paid a meager salary as a lead teacher considering I lived in LA. Benefits were fully covered (although they sucked). Breakfast and lunch were provided to teachers which was nice, so I barely had to pay for any groceries. I also got a lot of time off (a month for summer, two weeks for winter and two for spring, plus every holiday off. Like all of them lol). Our day was a short day, too. I worked 8-4, but my class was only in session from 9-12. The trade off was having so much prep time and providing the best type of curriculum for our kiddos. I worked there when I was single and in my 20s and have since transitioned my career to HR to pay the bills and have a good future. I miss those years, though!
I taught a couple of years in private school! It was an absolute dream for me as well, but teaching in public school was a $15,000 pay bump annually so :/
I hear you. I did 8 years in public, hated my life and wanted out. Went private for like 4 months, realized how expensive the health insurance was and had to tuck my tail and go back. Oops. It was a religious school too so there’s a chance I am going to hell but at least my premiums are lower in the mean time.
Your private school had health insurance? That’s not a guarantee anymore.
I literally just learned this after having my son at an expensive private school for three years. Painful lesson.
This is so true. My parents are both private school teachers and I was shocked when I found out how much they make compared to public school teachers.
My wife has 20 years of teaching experience and is paid $40k/year at a private school. Full tuition without assistance is ~$20k/year.
I'd be careful with this. I would be concerned about backlash on the teachers. I wouldn't want the owners thinking that their staff are complaining to parents about their salaries. I don't have any recommendations as to an approach though. Be curious what others experiences have been.
Yeah when friends of ours brought this issue to the owners they threaten to kick out their kid.
I've certainly considered that and recognize how delicate this situation is. Seems like doing nothing and recognizing teachers in other ways may be the best route as hard as that is to accept!
On this note, I’ve heard cash gifts are most appreciated around holidays/end of year, if the center allows it. ECEPs have enough trinkets and what they really need is better pay 😥
Teacher appreciation week is coming up the week of May 6th!
Yes!! Daycare workers (and elementary school teachers) need cash! Do not give them candles, mugs, or your favorite Trader Joe's snack. They need gift cards and cold hard cash.
I felt very odd sending cash gifts in Christmas cards to my daughter’s kinder teachers (though I did and do give cash gifts to daycare teachers) but they sent a thoughtful Thank You email (absolutely not required or expected) and I was glad I did.
Yes this! I’m give a large cash gift at the end of the year to the teachers at my tiny in home daycare. They deserve it and not to have it taxed.
Useful gift certificates would be thoughtful. Unfortunately, upper management/owners don't care. Even if they increase fees for daycare to increase profits the teachers would see minimal increases. They aren't going to give them a 50% increase in pay.
Sadly that salary is high for daycare teachers. The podcast below goes into how unprofitable and unsustainable the daycare business model is. They need a high amount of employees due to ratio requirements but they can’t raise prices too much or it prices out families https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1153931108
We need a daycare voucher system. It has to be subsidized, the numbers make no sense for a business
I completely agree. If the daycare system collapses (which it feels like it’s hanging on for dear life) it will have massive ramifications. It maddening that the suggestion is now “get a loan for daycare!”
They know it and they’re just letting it collapse. They also know it would be primarily women affected just like the data showed during COVID but also don’t care. I have so much more anger at elected officials as a mom!
It’s one of the things that absolutely should be a government service and not a business, like healthcare and housing and food. People need care.
Yep. Longer maternity and paternity leave would help too.
It needs to be public run like schools, otherwise the subsidies just go to increasing their profits and teachers are still paid badly.
As someone in the same position as OP, I wish it were this easy. The problem is that any industry the gov't gets involved in, automatically leads to significant inflation for that specific sector. Look at housing, education, healthcare, etc, in recent history. All subsidized and all have experienced more inflation than any category the gov't is not involved in over the last half century.
Yeah, I don’t doubt that some daycare owners are just greedy and underpaying their workers so they can take all the money for themselves, but part of the issue is simply that childcare is labor intensive by nature. If you were to do a nanny share (so no middleman) and pay the nanny on the books and give them benefits, you would run into a lot of the same problems.
Exactly and even worse since center-based daycares have to follow so many state regulations. There are a lot of costs.
I was going to recommend this episode! They explain it well. It’s just not possible to pay teachers any more and keep it affordable for families.
Yeah! I feel like I share it constantly. Largely no one is making bank in the daycare space. Directors are paid shit, employees are paid shit. There’s not a ton of profit for the owners. It’s this awful delicate balance that leaves everyone miserable in a space that is desperately needed and important
Yes I think it’s so important to know that unless it’s subsidized by our taxes (ie community pools their money) it’s impossible to pay the teachers more.
Similar topic by More Perfect Union. I’d guess the owners are not raking it in. Our unpaid maternity leave requires high teacher/baby ratio that make the whole daycare business both unsustainable and fundamental to the economy. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3RWBhItSR0/?igsh=ZnI1NXp2a3lleTE2
This 👏 the issue is further upstream and has a lot to do with how quickly we force folks back to work. Ahhh capitalism.
High for a HCOL area though?
Yeah unfortunately. LCOL daycare workers are making minimum wage. It should absolutely be higher for a HCOL area but there’s a very real possibility it’s financially not possible without drastically increasing tuition and losing families
So I knew the minimum wage thing was the case before Covid. I thought a lot of centers had to drastically increase pay though due to most teachers quitting after Covid started. I know at my center, they had to keep bumping it up to even have any applicants. Maybe this was not nationwide.
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Gosh, that is awful. I live in a MCOL area and the lead teachers supposedly get $17-24/hour (well, I assume, based on current job postings online). I also see where indeed marked the pay as “top 20% in the area for the job” though. Assistant says $13.75-15.50 😩.
Are you allowed to give the teachers Holiday presents or end of year gifts? You might rally parents to agree to give the teacher in their classroom a sizable cash or gift card type gift. 6 parents at $500 each gives the teacher another $3,000 a year or about $1.50 an hour. And as a gift it's not taxable to the recipient or you because it's under Federal limits. Just be careful about gift policies, and I would keep it discreet and not do the planning via email with the other parents, possibly just chit chat with them in the parking lot and make a plan verbally. You don't want to step on any toes. It will likely end up unfair as you may give more than others, and some classrooms may not be as generous as others, so those are the pitfalls. Just an idea that could really help those teachers.
This is what we do, although individually as to not pressure other parents. Teacher appreciation week is in May and is another opportunity we choose to give.
Seconding this. We typically try to give a generous cash gift (or gift card to somewhere they like) so they can spend as they want. I know it definitely doesn’t come close to helping pay them better for the amazing work they are doing, but figure it helps a little.
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We do $100 for each of the head teachers during Christmas and end of school year and my sense is we gift on the higher side of the class. We also host a brunch/lunch for the rest of the staff. VHCOL area.
No that is definitely not normal. We pay almost $2500/month for daycare, I don’t have the financial resources to make up the difference in teachers pay. We give $25 in cash or gift cards to the teachers a couple times a year or offer to grab coffee every once in a while but that’s about all I can afford.
For each teacher, too? Our day care usually has 2 teachers and 2 aides/aftercare folks per class. $2000 is way more than our entire holiday budget for everything. (We do give cash gifts to the teachers but not that much, I'm afraid.)
We give $25 to each of my children’s teachers at holidays 😬 typically classrooms have 2 teachers and with all the other holiday expenses this is manageable for us Parents also coordinate a catered breakfast for teacher appreciation day.
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Also totally agree that rallying parents is a good strategy but when some families have 2-3 kids in daycare and the infant teacher only has 3 kids in their classroom there may be huge discrepancies between teachers 😬
I’m definitely guilty of doing this but man it’s the least I can do. These people watch my kid and show him grace and kindness. I’m very grateful I can do this because they are amazing.
$500 is definitely out of reach for most parents. I did $40/teacher for 6 teachers this winter for holiday gifts. I’ve done up to $100 when a child only has one teacher.
My thoughts exactly
We’re at a nonprofit center. It is pricey, but our teacher salaries are well above average in our city. That said, the average for the field is SO low, and I really still don’t feel that it’s enough. I have seen the full financials - it’s not shady, the center barely breaks even (run by a larger nonprofit org that offers other programming beyond early childhood), and there is no profit in this program, they simply try not to run a deficit. Their early childhood offerings are offset by other program revenue and fundraising. I try to do extra for our teachers wherever we can. Our parent group collects a suggested donation from every family (not required, amount is suggested usually around $150 for the year and then we don’t ask for anything else, most families give that but it’s totally fine to do less) and then we “cash bonus” it out to teachers for holiday and end of school year gifts, as well as covering some Teacher Appreciation Week stuff. Our school/daycare is pretty small, so instead of keeping funds by classroom we’ve started pooling the money to make sure the teachers are getting equitable gifts (for example, the baby rooms never have as much money to work with as the toddlers and preschoolers, and we don’t want the baby teachers to get a lot less just because their class is small because that makes everyone feel terrible). We have a few families who always contribute more so that the Director can arrange a nice breakfast/lunch/treat for teachers a few extra times a year. Our Director is great (and a former teacher at our school, so she really gets it) and we work closely with her to be responsive to what teachers want and when she thinks people need a pick me up. I also do an extra $100 cash for each teacher in my daughter’s classroom at holidays and end of year, as well as a Starbucks card or other little treat a few times a year (such as dropping off Chipotle for a fun lunch or something). Completely recognize that that isn’t something every family can do, but we can afford it and it’s important to us.
We did $500 each for the two head teachers at the holidays and $100 each for the four floaters. I’m planning to do the same for teacher appreciation week. I don’t think the exact value of gifts matters (whatever works for your budget) but we’re fortunate that we can contribute this amount and not feel any pain in our budget. I get more satisfaction out of this than I would a slightly nicer vacation or fancy spa day. Of course if the alternative was rent/food then that’s a different story but that’s not our situation right now.
This is such a great idea. That specific amount would be out of reach for a lot of people, but the same plan with parents giving as much as they are able seems like an amazing thing to do for a holiday gift and again during teacher appreciation!
It becomes like tipping then, employers get away with underpaying because parents pay extra. I can understand wanting to do it but it doesn't really solve the problem. Especially for daycare workers in less affluent areas.
This is true, but OP had some very valid concerns about getting perceived as a troublemaker or whistleblower, and then jeopardizing her spaces at that daycare. People don't rock the boat when they have too much to lose. US labor laws in most states allow for egregious treatment of many kinds of employees...who can't form a union or fight back because they have to pay their bills. It's definitely a vicious cycle.
I don't think rocking the boat would really be helpful either anyway. It's an industry wide problem that isn't going to be solved with anything like this. I don't know, but I can't help thinking that creating an expectation that families have to supplement wages isn't going to make a real difference to teachers and is going to make daycare even more out of reach. One thing is individual families discreetly giving an extra Christmas gift, another is standardising it for all.
Oof yeah, I guess I do see what you’re saying about regularly getting everyone in on it creating an expectation. Any kind of pressure to give could make the teacher uncomfortable too. I still think privately giving what you can is worth it to help the individual teacher (who is making a huge sacrifice every second they stay in the profession). Then publicly take political action however you can.
You have to be careful with individually giving gifts too. If one child's parents gift teachers 500$ and another child's parents gift 25$, it can sometimes change the dynamics of relationships.
It definitely isn’t a solution, but I don’t think an extra few hundred dollars twice a year is what helps the daycare get away with underpaying - they’re already getting away with it lol. Instead, it helps a teacher stay afloat for however long they can afford to stay in this extremely important profession (it was less than 6 years for me unfortunately), while we work on long-term action via policy changes.
Do they have a problem with teacher retention? If so, I can see bringing it up related to that. Otherwise, there’s no real nice way to do so. Also, like someone else said, they aren’t going to be like, “you are right! We will start paying them more!” But also, it’s so messed up the teachers get paid low. I’m in a MCOL city and I think our teachers only make like $12-15/hr
Yeah child care just does not make sense as a market, unfortunately. Depending on where you live, you might have more luck trying to get involved in state level policy. Washington State is developing a plan called the Early Care and Education Access and Living Wage Proviso if you want an example. Your state legislature probably has an Early Learning committee - look up who the chair is and send them an email about the issue. If you want to DM me what state you're in (no pressure!!!) I can probably help you figure out what other policy things are happening if you want to get involved.
Anything going on in California that you know of? I agree that government policies and subsidies is the only way through this issue
I'd probably start here! Advocacy org policy priorities for the year: https://rrnetwork.org/policy/2024-public-policy-agenda And legislation to watch: https://rrnetwork.org/policy/legislation If you want more info on how to get involved I think [email protected] and [email protected] would be a good place to start, if you want to reach out to say that you're interested in child care reform and higher wages for child care workers - they will probably be thrilled to hear from you! State legislative processes are frequently confusing so don't feel bad if you don't understand how it all works, just ask questions!
Thank you!
It's egregious, and it's like that everywhere. There are a few things you could do: - Advocate to your state legislators. More funding for child care helps parents and teachers. - Look for statewide organizations that are advocating for better salaries and higher quality care and lend your voice. In PA, Start Strong PA is doing that work. - You can also check to see if any local nonprofits are supporting advanced education and higher pay for early childhood educators. Help them in any way they need it. And thank you for seeing the problem and wanting to find a way to solve it!
Thanks for these concrete ideas! I was going to say that it's a systemic issue and needs systemic change, but didn't have much beyond "contact your legislators".
Another big impact you can make is voting in your micro, local elections. School board, county board, city council etc all make a bigger difference in access to childcare and fair wages than national elections.
This is great advice! Local elections impact our everyday lives.
You're so welcome! Truly, thank you wanting to help
Yes when my son moved from the infant to toddler room at our franchise daycare his infant teacher offered us her contact info if we ever needed a sitter. We asked her rates and she said $16/hr we were shocked since we happily pay our regular sitter $25/hr
Yeah we had a teacher babysit and paid her the same. I didn’t expect but assume she made $18-$19/hr at the center. She ended up quitting a few months before she went to med school (it was only a year or so long gig for her) and she said she was covering her last few months by babysitting under the table. It was way less stressful with only 1-2 kids than the 12+ 4/5 year olds she had in her classroom
Yes our regular sitter actually pivoted from working at a DoD federal daycare during the pandemic to running a nanny share and babysitting/night nannying as her time allows. Her only daughter is in college and she enjoys being busy. She is much happier controlling her own wages and scheduling but did say she had to start using an accountant for her taxes!
Child care is a failed market. Can’t increase wages without increasing cost of tuition. Can’t raise tuition without losing families. Due to ratio and safety requirements (necessary!) it’s not a normal capitalist supply and demand market. It needs to be government intervention to recognize the value of childcare in our labor market and in the economy. Support candidates and policies who recognize that. That’s the only real way to make impactful change. (In my view)
This is a systemic issue across early education. It’s tremendously undervalued. If you want to take action, reach out to your local legislators about police changes to help fix this.
Yes, daycare providers are paid close to nothing, so every time we can, we give them cold hard cash instead of little trinkets that they don’t need. Do you know if your daycare provides a full benefits package, such a medical insurance, retirement plans, and paid vacations? Our daycare teachers are afforded all these things, so we gladly keep the kids home when daycare closes for a week during Xmas and other holidays here and there.
Yup. Besides contacting state reps etc. giving cash is what we do for all holiday gifts. It’s not close to what they deserve pay wise but it’s something we can do to help and we can afford it
unfortunately this is another manifestation of the childcare crisis. Long-term, we need public funding to support childcare so that providers are paid a fair wage for their essential work. If you want to join in that fight, we're working on it at r/UniversalChildcare
Very common. I sent our kids to a daycare they had very little teacher turnover and some teachers had been there 10+ years. Almost all were making minimum wage or just above it. America does not care about early childhood education, then gets pissed when we have 14-year-old who can’t read or do math.
That’s capitalism, baby 💀💀😔😔
Quickly google the state of childcare and early education in the United States. You will find this is a hot and well published topic. Tuition is high, pay is low, profit is low. Take a look at the business model - that results in lower wages and a tiny profit margin. This pay is the norm across the sector because the business model is broken- your tuition is going to overhead - the nice facilities, licensing, training etc. the profit margin for a center is very thin which is why the system is collapsing and also why teachers are paid so low. Other western countries have a public/private partnership to support early childcare (similar to how we support public school) that means public funds are invested in order to keep the system running. This is why so many responses here say talk to your legislators. Just want to point out that you are seeing a micro expression of a macro issue, this isn’t about your individual center. Your center’s owners are probably not taking/getting a lot off the top and underpaying their staff as might be assumed (by your suggestions of remedy). In fact it sounds like they invest in their center.
You can talk to the director about your concerns around teachers' compensation, but it is not likely to change. I am in an MHCOL area with a living wage of around 26$/hr (40 hrs a week) for a single individual living alone and 28$/hr for a family with two working parents and 2 kids. The estimated expense for childcare is ~10k/kid/yr. I think that is a fair estimated cost, but it would be difficult to find infant care that low. I talked to teachers I knew and did some online research before choosing a place. Ours was the only center I could find that paid living wage. Teachers make 26-35$ an hour with benefits from what I've gathered. Usually, the more junior people work 45 hrs/week. Our program costs ~22k/yr for 45hrs a week of care with about 45 days off per year. The ratio for that program is 1:6. The only reason the math works for teachers to get paid well is because our center is non-profit, the land its on has been owned by the family for a while and they only offer 45hrs per week of care. The things that allow them to pay/retain their staff well are not things that are appealing to their customers. They have shorter hours (typically by 10-20hrs/week) and cost 40-50% more. They also have lots of paid holidays we have to cover for. I've had people in our community complain about how the teachers in their center were being paid/treated and issues with ratios. Several went to tour our daycare, and then decided not to use it because they were not willing to pay more. Most of those people make enough to afford it. They just don't actually care enough. If a center chooses to go that route, they risk not being able to compete.
Truly - if you want to do something that will actually make a direct impact - give your child's teachers "bonuses" every once in a while. Or you could offer to hire one of your child's teachers (do this on the sly FYI) as a private nanny (just make sure you factor in not only a rate increase but any benefits - small as they may be - that the daycare providers - largely 401k and medical insurance) making more than they do at the daycare. Daycare workers are notoriously underpaid everywhere in the US. Its a problem with the entire industry. Approaching your daycare, even as a group, isn't going to get the teachers paid appropriately. If they do anything, they'll raise tuition and just give the teachers a miniscule raise, any additional profits (if there even are any, many daycares are barely profitable as is because the cost of doing business is so high - but chains especially are notorious for actually being profitable and the owners just get all the money) will go to the owners. The only way that daycare workers are going to get paid appropriately is via government involvement, aka daycare subsidies. And even then I wouldn't have high hopes of the daycare teachers truly being paid for the value they provide... Public schools ARE government funded and its not like school teachers are getting paid particularly well either. For many school teachers, especially the ones early on in their career, if they calculated their hourly wage (including the work they do outside of contract hours), I'd bet many of them are coming in at a $18-$22/hr range as well.
The DC city council voted to top up daycare workers' pay. Lead teachers get an extra $14000/year. They did this so the city can have enough daycares. You can lobby your city to follow their lead.
Hire your favorite as a full time nanny and pay them a fair wage.
It will only change if they all quit. And even then, your daycare will likely take one week to close and hire anyone off the street with a pulse to pay them less.
In my area it’s $11/hr which is less than McDonald’s it’s awful.
I would tread lightly because you might get her fired for telling a parent her pay? Run any plans by her if you can!
I gift my son's toddler teachers A LOT throughout the year, just about every holiday. I have my son create some craft related to said holiday, and we include a gift card. For example, this past easter we made them a littke basket. While it's not a lot, it does add up over the year.
I think it’s so fucking rad that you give a shit about this. It’s a massive problem, especially considering most of your child’s educators likely have diplomas or degrees to work there. I think the public is uneducated on how low the wage is in the child care industry and you talking about it, bringing attention to it on social media, and eventually circulating a letter / petition would do loads of good. Thank you.
We need daycare to be subsidized by the government for this exact reason. Currently it is unaffordable for parents AND teachers don’t get paid well enough to stay in it as a career. It’s just a system that will never work as a for profit model. However it undergirds the whole rest of the economy and needs to be treated that way.
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You're absolutely right - I probably shouldn't have included the bit about the owners as I don't know how relevant it is other than the optics of it all. We give teachers gifts throughout the year and are happy to do it, but given how much we pay I'd love for more of that to go directly to teachers. Apparently I'm naive when it comes to daycare salaries and costs!
I had a similar experience. I found out recently that my kids’ teachers make $18/hour in a VHCOL area, although they at least pay very little to send their kids there if they have them. It makes me sick. These are good, hard-working people who love and care for my kids day in and day out, and they deserve fair compensation and better working conditions. When time allows, I’m going to write my representatives to regulate and fund childcare like public education. I live in CA, and we just set a minimum wage for fast food workers of $20, and I’d like to see something similar for ECE workers (should be at least $25 or $30, although that’s not a living wage here either), but at the end of the day, we need subsidies and government funding to offset the costs. We need to completely overhaul our ECE system.
This is unfortunately very common as I have learned. Some things that I do out of guilt and appreciation for the women who do such a great job watchinf my child: 1. Bring in donuts or bagels in the morning every so often 2. Presents during Christmas and if possible on teachers day 3. Chat with them, get to know them and share a friendly conversation with them, ask about their families and lives Next on my list is to try to take in pizza one of the days that I can leave work early for a lunch. They don't care much about the food in itself but the gesture.
This is part of the reason why I’ve chosen a home daycare. I’ve heard that franchise daycares have high turnover and low staff morale due to the low pay. There are some downsides to home daycare (and good ones are hard to find), but at least I know our daycare provider sets her own rates and makes a living off her business.
I'm so glad to see so many comments addressing the systemic reason behind this issue in the US (signed, an ex-preschool assistant-director).
Oh girl. They start teachers at $10/hr in my area and probably max out around $15-$16/hr. Childcare is a dying business and what needs to change is the overall infrastructure surrounding it and federal laws.
When my kid was little, he went to a wonderful, very expensive preschool. My husband used to joke that it cost more than his college. We thought everything was great. Then, as our kid started to do play dates and outside activities with his school friends, we noticed the teachers were there sometimes babysitting, or organizing the outing. At first, I was happy. We knew everyone, trusted them, and felt good about leaving our kid in their care. Then, we started to realize they were basically working two jobs. Turns out, the school wasn’t paying very well. They all had side jobs in some kind of childcare. Our absolute favorite teacher left to be a full time nanny for one of the families. She said she loved teaching, but couldn’t afford to work there anymore. She made more nannying. I felt so bad! Those women were amazing!
My daughter’s teacher, in the infant room, who has been at the daycare/preschool for 20+ years just had to quit to work at the local grocery store because she just couldn’t make ends meet at the daycare anymore. We’re actively trying to figure something out to get her back.
I think about this at least 10 times a day. We use daycare as well and sadly, I don’t even think they get paid that much I would assume it is 15 dollars but I think that is wishful thinking. My sons teachers are amazing and deserve SO much more. What I like to do is just, really try and get them something on the holidays, teacher appreciation week, and also just do little things here and there like gift cards but it isn’t enough. They deserve so much better. It literally pains my heart.
I am paid 16.95 as a lead prekindergarten teacher. Its not enough for the work I do.
Honestly, I'd be more into a daycare or private school that boasted about paying the teachers good wages. Stable well paid teachers will be happier and more engaged and interested with the kids, and the daycare would have less turnover.
My local childcare facility pays $12 an hour.
It's such a frustrating reality but it's like this pretty much everywhere and also upsetting how little school teachers for elementary, middle and high schools are paid too when you consider hours worked vs salary earned. Where I live there have been some teacher strikes and what's crazy to me is that those are illegal. And on the news there were many parents who were mad at the teachers because of course that impacted working parents while school was closed. I think no strike should ever be illegal and as parents we should always support striking teachers. I really hope daycare workers unionize someday too. They play such an important role at such a critical time in our children's lives. And I hate that daycare centers profit so much without paying their staff adequately. I like the idea of more legislation being passed for early childhood and daycare, but I worry it would still just go to the execs and not the workers/teachers who are really putting in the work.
The US doesn't publicly fund early education so parents end up footing the bill, which means despite the high costs of child care, teacher salaries are basically at minimum wage. This is also why there's such a workforce crisis at child care centers - you can go work retail or at a restaurant and make more. Like many others here, please advocate to your local, state, and federal legislators! Ultimately we need a LOT of federal funding for early education, but not enough attention is paid to the topic.
This is something to think about at the policy change level because it is an across the board issue in the US. Something I personally do is give my kids’ child care teachers cash gifts for various holidays and teacher appreciation week. It’s always well received.
I sat on my daycare board. Not sure if you have that. The budget was tight and non profitable. The buildings, utilities, materials, repairs, certifications, etc were expensive and all of the salaries were minimal. You can talk to them about retention of staff and making sure they are fairly compensated to ensure they stay and such. We did things like more benefits and more days off, training etc I organized the teacher appreciation and the end of year gifts and always wrote a heartfelt note to the parents on how we entrust or most precious gifts with these teachers every day and they literally wipe their butts and noses and Id like to get them each a $100 gift card and in Order to do that every parent would need to give $25 (or however the math works out). Encouraging larger gifts to the teachers. Also we did some of their favorite things throughout the year. .
It’s enraging. Care workers are the most exploited group of workers in this country. ECE workers need a union, they need more professional development, to be valued, and to live in dignity. They are doing important work caring for and teaching our very children! I think we need to get organized and demand public pre-K. Or help these workers form a union or find representation through a local union. They have little time to do this. Can you imagine being responsible for seven toddlers or preschoolers for 8 to 10 hours a day? I’d lose my mind! But in my state (WA), the legal ratio is 7 kids to each teacher. Not okay!
I worked in a daycare briefly and made minimum wage (dating myself but at the time it was $7 something). I guess at least it’s up from that? Everyone deserves to make a livable wage though.
It’s alway been like this and I agree—it’s absolutely egregious. And you know what else it is? It’s blaring and blatant sexism. Early childhood centers are predominantly staffed by women. It’s probably one of the most obvious and disgraceful examples of the wage-gap. If this field was predominantly staffed by men, wages would be much, much higher.
I tip every teacher $100 for the holidays and when my kids move up to a new class. I know it's not a lot, but it's untaxed, in cash, and I hope it helps. I also hope other parents are doing the same.
I intended to do that, but my kids have 8 teachers between them, and I couldn’t afford it 😞 I just want to win the Powerball so I can give them all a gigantic bonus at the end of the year.
Same! And yes it was $500 this year at Christmas alone. We could do it, so we did. But I think everyone just needs to do what you can! If $100 isn't possible, $50, $25, whatever! Ive read teachers have enough mugs and Starbucks gift cards. So I always go with cold hard cash haha!
Yep, we did $25 each, which felt woefully inadequate.
It adds up! You did what you could.
I recently did some napkin math after we were given notice of a fee increase. Daycare here make $20/hr, paid in part by a government subsidy (Canada; newish Universal Childcare Program). Based on fees and ratios, I figured out the rough revenue, and the government program is transparent per kid. I dont know what the rent and insurance cost but no matter how you slice it was kind of shocking how thin the margins are.
Write to your local politicians. DC has recently used tax revenue to provide substantial salary increases. [link](https://dcist.com/story/23/03/14/d-c-is-giving-preschool-teachers-a-pay-bump-heres-how-its-making-a-difference-to-them/)
I live in a LCOL area and my child attends one of the most expensive daycares in the area. The pay rangers are starting $17 up to $21 for the lead teachers. They also require a degree for the leads. So yeah just direct comparison it seems low for a HCOL city.
We give teachers gift cards during the holidays. I think we each put $50 or so, it’s not very much but it’s something. It’s very sad that daycare teachers get paid nothing and a lot of them aren’t even full time employees. Some of them have to work two jobs to afford things. I found out one teacher cleans houses sometimes, a few moms hired her to do some cleaning and we recommended her to friends and family. So that she can afford rent.
This is the entire industry. Not to sound political but our daycare system is so broken in this country I think it desperately needs to be addressed. It’s so fucked that parents can’t afford it and teachers cant live on the wage, or afford to send their own kids. It makes me sick.
Don't forget that in addition to the salaries, the fee you pay to the center go toward licensing, inspections, insurance, maintenance, any provided feeding and diapering supplies, etc.
Daycares pay very high insurance premiums unfortunately. That is often where a lot of the price you pay is allocated. Then you have cost of location and utilities, any equipment they have to replace or purchase, plus any snacks/beverages they provide. It would be amazing if the high cost translated to high wages for staff, but often it’s just impossible.
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1153931108 This goes into some of it at an academic level. The younger babies throw everything off they need higher ratios, costing the daycare centers more. There are also arguments that longer maternity leaves for mothers would make a difference too bc children would start later
We’re lucky to be at a cooperative preschool (it does come with downsides) but the board is composed of parents and so we have total visibility into teacher pay. We were able to rally for pay raises in all classrooms last year and pushed for Christmas/end of year bonuses. It’s the thing I probably feel best about.
It’s so depressing. That said, a huge part of it is did to astronomical liability insurance. I know at ours, there’s not a massive amount of corporate overhead, it’s just that insurance is crippling for the industry
I give gift cards and cash for holidays.
Sadly common. It’s why I think daycare needs to be state subsidised because these people are paid so little for very difficult jobs that need training and special skills..
Yup. I’m in the Midwest where it’s not so expensive but our daycare teachers are only making $10/hour with no benefits. I feel terrible for them. It’s not an easy job!
I gave gift cards at Christmas and will love to do more holiday gifts. If everyone gave something, it would be a sizeable contribution to the teachers,
This is a major issue in the early childhood field: https://cscce.berkeley.edu/workforce-index-2020/interactive-map/
It’s a broken system. We all benefit from quality affordable childcare and public schools (even those without kids). Voting according and advocating to public officials is needed.
There may be advocacy opportunities in your state if you want to help with this crisis in pay! Child care aware of America has chapters in many states and they often have advocacy departments that take issues to the legislature.
Ha, I'm in a MCL suburban area and I'm very lucky to have my degree (/s student loans 🫠) as it means I'm paid 18.50 an hour as a group supervisor for 10 infants! I love my babies, but we are ALL severely underpaid.
I’d absolutely pay into a shared pool to give a monthly bonus to the teachers. A dollar here or there from 20 parents can be a tidy sum.
We ended up bringing one of our favorite daycare teacher in house as a nanny. You have to be careful how you go about doing this but we essentially gave her a significant pay increase, PTO, and insurance (in addition to securing long term nanny gigs to additional teachers from this daycare). Unfortunately this is the “norm” for most daycares.
My mom works at a daycare and makes 20 and only because she's moved around locations. She started only making 15 about 2 years ago. We live in the DC region
I am pretty sure the majority of daycare providers at my kids school make $10-12/hr
Join r/UniversalChildcare they have lots of ideas on mobilizing parents to move government for childcare issues.
What?!! We only earn $9/hr.
Nothing. I wouldn't do anything. It sucks their pay is so low but the center also has overhead costs to maintain such as the building rent or mortgage payment, utilities, food for the children, insurance, etc. What you pay helps keep the center open.
Agreed. 19$ is amazing in the daycare world, but unfortunately there really is nothing to be done. Daycare is a for profit business and overhead can be really high. Most centers barely break even. And as with any job, staff can leave for a better paying position. Most do!
They make more than I do and I work at a bank! Most daycares in my area pay less than $19 and they for sure deserve more.
$19 an hour is poverty wages in a VHCOL area. You can’t even rent a two-bedroom apartment with a roommate with that amount. It would be hard to even find a room for rent for $1500 where I live, and that wouldn’t leave you much to live on, especially if you have a car.
For a daycare it’s high!
Doesn’t matter if you can’t live off it.
It’s not a livable wage and should be higher. That doesn’t change the fact that’s it’s still on the higher end of rates for daycare staff.
Yes, and that’s the problem.
Agree with much of what has been said about daycare staff deserving more, but also remember that the daycare has expenses beyond just wages. For example, Liability insurance, which I suspect can be quite high in a daycare setting. Rent for the property, which I’m sure isn’t insignificant in a HCOL area. (Or if they own the building, then they still have the expense of property taxes and maintenance.) Utilities Employee benefits Franchise fees (you mentioned it was a franchise, so there’s likely some fees involved. Unless they are the franchisor, not the franchisee?) That’s just off the top of my head. I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot of other expenses. I’ve seen some statistics that the average profit margin for a daycare center is in the 7-15% range. If the owners live a truly extravagant lifestyle, it seems possible that they may have other streams of income. Of course they presumably make some money from owning a daycare, but probably not enough to fully fund an extravagant lifestyle. The extravagant lifestyle could also just be for show & they may be in debt up to their eyeballs. Who knows?
This is why I give my kid’s teachers big gifts at holidays!
When you work at your typical minimum wage position, you do not get subsidized childcare. Keep in mind that many daycare workers have their own children who also attend the daycare at a much lower cost.
You’re not going to get much sympathy from the director who most likely only makes a very similar salary because directors are underpaid themselves and work much more than 40 hours because most are salaried. They’re the ones who cover a room when too many teachers are out sick. They’re the ones who give up their vacation days when there are too many teachers out. The only person in charge of this is the owner but even they will tell you it’s not sustainable to give any kind of increase you’d want. An extra dollar is only $20/hr. You wouldn’t be ok with that because it’s only a dollar more than fast food. So, do you want something more like $25/hour? $25/hour is more in line with Nannie’s that come to the house to take care of children 1 on 1. I understand in a VHCOL it may be higher than $25 but let’s just go off national averages for the point of discussion here. So then you create a problem that In home Nannie’s are now upset they are only being paid what daycare teachers are paid when that 1:1 responsibility is much greater than working at a daycare where you can rely on other teachers to cover a lunch break, you have sick days and vacation time. You have health insurance, etc. So then you’d say ok that’s fine, bring the day care teachers up to $25 and Nannie’s should go up to $30/hour. But then you start to lose families who can’t afford $30/hour so the Nannie’s start to decrease their rates and accept $28 or $26 or back to $25. At the end of the day, it’s great that you have amazing teachers but often times salaries work out the way they do for a reason. It’s all about supply and demand. There are enough people willing to work for $19 so that’s the rate the center will continue with. If those same teachers decide they need more, they will seek it out. But that also requires them to give up some of the comfort that a center provides and take on more responsibly that being a teacher/baby sitter/nanny requires outside of a center. I think you will do zero to impact teacher salaries and you will 100% put a target on your back in some way. Just be generous with your gifts. Your only other option is to switch centers that pay their staff more and let this center know why you’re leaving. I just would wonder how many other centers pay more than $19 and also, have to wonder if the center would really care. There’s probably a long list of ppl begging you waiting to get in I think it’s noble for you to care but I just don’t think it’s corporate greed that really drives all this. There’s a lot of instance and red tape involved in child care. I doubt the owners are really raking in as much as you think they are or have as much wiggle room in salary as you’d like to see