Report urges investing in child care to fix low pay, high prices

Poor wages lead to unstable system in Pa.

Too many early child care and education teachers in Pennsylvania earn low wages and live in poverty, while child care remains costly for families, according to research released last week.

The report calls for greater public investment in order to create a “values-based” system that adequately pays teachers and is still affordable to working parents.

In Pennsylvania, early childhood education teachers who have bachelor’s degrees earn 22% less than K-8 teachers, according to the report, which was produced by leftleaning think tank the Economic Policy Institute and University of California Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment.

The poverty rate for early educators in Pennsylvania is 17.6%, compared with 9.2% of Pennsylvania workers in general, according to the analysis.

Child care workers earn a median wage of $11.17 per hour, or $23,240 per year, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

This low pay for educators can lead to high turnover and an overall unstable child care system, the report noted.

“The key to high-quality care is well-trained and well-paid staff,” said Diana Polson, a policy analyst at the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, which is part of the same network of think tanks as the Economic Policy Institute.

The average yearly cost of infant care in Pennsylvania is

$11,560 — $963 per month, according to EPI’s estimate.

The state does subsidize child care for some lower-income families, though not enough funds are available for all who qualify and the waiting list is lengthy.

Creating greater access to high-quality early childhood education has been the focus of ongoing discussion locally.

In Allegheny County in 2018, voters rejected a property tax increase that would have boosted funds for early childhood education, among other items.

And last year, a 25-member working group appointed by county Executive Rich Fitzgerald recommended creating a department dedicated to improving early childhood education as well as after-school programs.