Despite the fact that she spends 50 hours a week being responsible for the care, well-being and early education of our children, our most precious natural resource, she is unable to earn a living-wage or receive quality health care compensation. Marcy Whitebook, Ph.D. addressed the issue in The National Child Care Staffing Study 1988-1997 entitled, "Worthy Work, Unlivable Wages." Dr. Whitebook states, "The cornerstone of childcare that promotes healthy development is the presence of sensitive, consistent, well-trained and well-compensated caregivers" (Whitebook, Howes & Phillips (1998) p. 1). Any one committed to doing this type of work is not in it for the money, but, unfortunately, love and smiles don't pay the rent. I've used a woman here for sake of example, and although there are dedicated men in the EC field, many are not willing to even consider it as a career because of low wage standards. Dr. Whitebook goes on to explain, "Real wages for most child care teaching staff have remained stagnant for over the past decade. Teachers at the lowest-paid level earn an average of $7.50 per hour or $13,125 per year" (Whitebook, Howes & Phillips (1998) p.8). What this means is that we lose many great teachers in our classrooms as they seek higher wages elsewhere leading to lower quality child care, high teacher turn-over rates, more undereducated employees, and more safety issues with low staffing. What's really scary is that this study was done twenty years ago and little to nothing has changed or improved. My last preschool job in 2012 started me at $7.50 per hour with the promise of $9.00 after three months. Some centers are taking matters into their own hands. For example, a private parent-cooperative preschool in Santa Fe agreed to pay their teachers the same wage as a public Kindergarten teacher. They recognized the importance of supporting the people caring for their children each week and the higher quality of care they received in return. However, this is an isolated case. Even President Clinton observed in the White House Conference on Child Care in October 1997, "Child care workers on the whole are better educated than the American workforce, but lower paid. We keep saying that we want these people to get more education and more training, and yet a lot of them are quite well educated and working for ridiculously limited wages...I think we ought to find ways that every community and every state can honor outstanding child care workers in the same ways that we honor teachers today, or scientists" (Whitebook, Howes & Phillips (1998) p.23). Hopefully we can count on other leaders to address this major issue in American society. There is more knowledge gained in the first four years of life than the first four years of college; why then are preschool teachers not valued in the same way? In conclusion, Dr. Whitebook states, "The cost to society of negative outcomes for children is many times the cost of paying the appropriate teaching staff compensation that is so essential to providing quality child care. Ignoring this lesson can only continue to place young children's futures at risk" (Whitebook, Howes, & Philips (1998) p.23).
So, what are your thoughts? Are you going to stop and help that woman on the side of the road? Are your children worth it? Is the future of our society worth it?
For more in depth understanding, please refer to the full article.
References:
Whitebook, Marcy; Howes, Carollee; Phillips, Deborah. (1998). Worthy Work, Unlivable Wages: The National
Child Care Staffing Study, 1988-1997. 1-25. Center for the Child Care Workforce.
Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED419614.pdf
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