Childcare and Pay

For as long as I can remember – over twenty years- childcare providers have been paid very little, and as a result, the turnover of providers is the national disgrace. The equation is often based on childcare payments and childcare overhead.

Consider that the overhead expense is probably half of the income of most childcares. If the cost of childcare is $100.00 per child per week, that means $50.00 of a parents’ fee goes to maintaining the building, food, toys, cleaning, etc. That leaves $50.00 per child to spend on teachers, and that can’t include insurance, and substitutes and any other expense because it’s simply not enough.

If the ratio is raised to 6-1, and that’s illegal for children under three, it could mean a teacher could receive as much as $300.00 per week for a forty hour week.

Now double the ratio to 12-1 and the costs rise in equipment and work and substitute increases, but you can add insurance and some other benefits, so make that a take home of about $400.00. But the same time, the amount of stress rises and no matter what the pay, the job becomes exhausting and unmanageable, and that’s how it works.

Doubling the cost of childcare makes childcare prohibitive for most parents, so what’s the point of having it?

Government grants provide help to single parents and families under the poverty level, but should our tax dollars be spent on childcare when there are two parents and one is at home?

Childcare is a job for someone who has a husband’s support.

Here’s an article about it.