Child Care Educator Turnover During the Implementation of DC’s Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund

• In Event: State and Local Strategies for Supporting the Financial Well-Being of the Early Care and Education Workforce

Abstract

Low wages for early childhood educators in the United States, especially those employed in child care settings outside the public school system, impede policymakers’ capacity to build and sustain high-quality child care (Bassok et al., 2021; Fee, 2024). On average, child care centers lose about 40% of their educators each year, with some centers losing more than half their staff year after year (Doromal et al., 2021). Public investments to support child care programs in increasing educators’ pay without raising tuition and limiting families’ access have the potential to improve workforce stability and children’s continuity in care.

In this presentation, we share new findings from an implementation study of DC’s Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund. We analyze administrative data on staff-level employment records and child care licensing data to document turnover rates among early educators during a period where DC educators received substantial increases to their wages.

In fiscal years 2022 and 2023, child care educators participating in DC’s Pay Equity Fund received significant increases to compensation through direct supplemental payments—as much as 39 percent for some educators. Our first research aim is to describe the stability of DC’s child care educator workforce in its first year of implementation. We document employment patterns in quarterly intervals from September 2023 to September 2024, exploring differences by child care sector, geography, and educator characteristics such as role and years of experience.

The structure of the program shifted beginning in FY 2024, such that licensed child care facilities applied to receive operational funding to enhance their educators’ wages to align with the minimum salaries established in statute. Under this new structure, educators received additional compensation through increased pay from their employer. Our second research aim examines employment patterns during the transition in structure (March 2023 to March 2024) and in subsequent years (March 2024 to March 2025). We document movement not only out of DC child care but also within DC child care. We hypothesized that facilities not participating in the Pay Equity Fund experienced greater turnover than participating facilities.

Preliminary findings indicate that educators seek employment at centers participating in the Pay Equity Fund, improving staff recruitment for these centers. Centers that accept children with subsidies experienced especially positive benefits from the Pay Equity Fund: Those not participating had an average turnover rate of 51 percent from 2023 to 2024, compared to 37 percent among centers that did participate. Future analyses, which will be ready by the conference, will describe employment patterns through March 2025.

Our findings indicate the potential of wage enhancement programs in improving recruitment and stabilizing centers’ workforces. More broadly, our study emphasizes the importance of tracking both intended and unintended labor market outcomes throughout program implementation. We discuss implications for states and localities as they consider and introduce supply-side initiatives designed to support child care programs in raising wages for their educators and staff.

Author

• Justin Brian Doromal, Urban Institute
  Presenting Author