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

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Despite being a crucial ingredient to the delivery of high-quality early care and education (ECE), early educators are among the lowest paid workers in the United States. The challenging economic prospects for early educators contribute to high rates of turnover and workforce instability. As such, improving financial well-being is a key first step in building and sustaining the ECE workforce.

States and localities have implemented a wide range of strategies to support the financial well-being of the ECE workforce. This panel brings together four papers that exemplify several key policies. 

The first paper uses longitudinal data on ECE programs participating in Massachusetts’ Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) grant program to examine how wages of educators and directors changed throughout their participation in the program. C3 grants can be used for operational expenses, quality improvement supports, and workforce investments. Findings indicate that wages of educators and directors in C3-participating programs have increased over time but that changes are smaller when adjusted for inflation.  Variation in wage growth is related to program characteristics such as age groups served, program size, for-profit status, and whether a program is part of a multi-site organization.

The second paper reports on an ethnographic account of the development of a workforce salary supplement for licensed centers and family child care homes in Illinois, the Smart Start Workforce Grants (SSWG).  Through analysis of monthly SSWG advisory group meetings and in-depth interviews with diverse stakeholders (e.g., providers, advocates, and state administrators), the study provides insights into both form and content of participatory decision making. The analysis attends especially to how stakeholder input was used to support design and implementation choices and how stakeholders evaluated their influence into the decision-making process.

The third paper reports on implementation evaluations of two initiatives in Maine: an EC workforce salary supplement (implemented at scale) and a pilot program to subsidize child care for the children of EC teachers (serving only 375 families). Through analysis of administrative data, surveys, and focus groups, the evaluations highlighted the positive impact of both initiatives on retention for participating teachers. However, implementation and communication challenges and a quickly-reached program budget cap led to unintended negative impacts of the child care subsidy on child care centers, especially where some staff received the benefit and others did not.

The fourth paper analyzes staff-level employment records and child care licensing data to examine turnover rates among early educators during the implementation of DC’s Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund. In FY 2022 and 2023, participating early educators could receive significant increases to compensation through direct payments—as much as 39 percent for some educators. In FY 2024, child care programs applied to receive funding to enhance educators’ wages to align with minimum salary schedules. Preliminary findings indicate that educators seek employment at centers participating in the Pay Equity Fund, improving staff recruitment and stability for these centers.

Two discussants will bring state and local administrator perspectives about implications for designing and implementing sustainable policy solutions for supporting the ECE workforce.

Policy Area

• Family and Child Policy

Secondary Policy Area

• Education

Chair

• Meagan Comb, Boston University

Discussants

• Jocelyn Bonnes Bowne, Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care

• Lauren Dinsmore, King County

Organizer

• Pia Caronongan, Boston University

Individual Presentations

• Examining Wage Growth in ECE Programs: Evidence from Massachusetts - Presenting Author: Pia Caronongan, Boston University

• Stakeholder engagement in policy design: The case of Illinois’ Smart Start Workforce Grants (SSWG) - Presenting Author: Julia Henly, The University of Chicago

• An implementation evaluation of Maine’s EC Educator Salary Supplements and Child Care Employment Award Pilot - Presenting Author: Theresa A Hawley, Northern Illinois University

• Child Care Educator Turnover During the Implementation of DC’s Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund - Presenting Author: Justin Brian Doromal, Urban Institute