Study Examines Early Educator Pay in DC Region

It’s no secret that early educators are generally underpaid and underappreciated. Research shows that many early educators earn wages as low as less than $10 and as high as $20 an hour depending on the setting in which they work. Understanding how much pay varies by community, however, is a task made more difficult by the fragmented nature of the country’s early care and education system.

A recent study from the Urban Institute provides helpful clarity about the salary levels of educators of infant, toddler, and pre-kindergarteners in the Washington, DC region and estimates how much it would cost to boost their pay to match entry-level kindergarten teachers in the area. In order to gain an accurate understanding of compensation levels, researchers gathered information from national surveys, regional public school pay plans, expert interviews, and a literature review.

The salary information was primarily gathered from the American Community Survey (ACS) and includes data from center-based educators, family child care educators, and school-based educators. The researchers’ analysis does not include pay of educators in pre-K programs located in elementary schools due to data limitations. The study examines educator pay in six jurisdictions in the DC region: Washington, DC itself, the City of Alexandria and Arlington County in Virginia, and Montgomery County and Prince George’s County in Maryland.

Early educators in the DC region earn an average of $17,711 a year, which translates to $15.25 an hour. This pay rate is much lower than that of entry-level kindergarten teachers in the region, who average $27.36 an hour. The study reveals slight differences in pay based on jurisdiction (see Figure 1 below). Pay also varies by setting in which educators work: center-based educators coded by the ACS as preschool teachers earn about $17 an hour on average compared to $16.06 an hour for family child care educators and $13.34 an hour for center-based educators coded as child care workers.

Perhaps the most concerning data from the study emerge in the dramatic differences in hourly wages by race and ethnicity. As Figure 3 illustrates (see below), Hispanic educators on average earn only 75 cents for every dollar earned by white educators, and black educators earn 84 cents to the dollar. Addressing these racial pay discrepancies would help to attract and retain a greater number of early educators of color. The study also finds that educators with a bachelor’s degree earn only about a dollar more per hour than their less-educated counterparts.

Since benefits are an important component of overall compensation, the study also examines health insurance coverage and finds that only 52 percent of early educators in the region have health insurance through their employer or their spouse’s employer. The study does not gather data about the availability of sick leave or retirement benefits.

After gaining an accurate picture of the pay of the estimated 30,000 early educators in the DC region, the researchers next examine the cost of increasing their wages to $27 an hour to equal the wages of entry-level kindergarten teachers in the area. The estimated total cost of this sizable wage increase would be $464 million per year, excluding costs of increasing access to benefits such as health insurance and pensions.

The high cost of such a wage increase would come with a number of benefits, especially when coupled with increased educational requirements. Higher pay would likely attract a more skilled workforce and reduce staff turnover. When military child development centers increased wages by 76 percent as a result of the Military Child Care Act of 1989, educator turnover was dramatically reduced. Low turnover helps establish continuity of care between educators and children, which leads to stronger bonds and more secure attachments. Perhaps most importantly, research suggests that well-paid early educators deliver higher quality care and education.

The study accurately points out that a large obstacle that must be overcome to increase early educator compensation is the limited public funding currently dedicated to early care and education. As the recent Transforming the Financing of Early Care and Education report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine makes clear, a significant increase in public investment in early care and education is necessary to produce an affordable high-quality care and education system with a highly qualified and adequately paid workforce.

The Academies report estimates such a system would cost about $140 billion per year, significantly more than the combined $29 billion in federal and state funding currently dedicated to early care and education. The $140 billion price tag includes the cost of a wide range of improvements to the early care and education system, such as significantly higher levels of educator pay, paid release time for professional development, and investments in textbooks and scholarships for educators taking higher education courses.

In the absence of such a significant increase in public funding, state officials can employ strategies to help move the workforce towards higher levels of compensation. For example, funds could be used to link pay with progression in a state-approved career ladder so that educators earn more money as they gain more education and experience. One example of such a program was Washington State’s Early Childhood Education Career and Wage Ladder, which operated from 2000 until being cut due to a state budget crisis in 2003. Research found that participation in the program was linked to higher wages, morale, and staff retention.

More recently, in 2007 the Louisiana Legislature passed a package of tax credits known as School Readiness Tax Credits. The tax credits help child care providers pay higher wages and encourage staff to obtain higher levels of education since the refundable credits increase in step with educational attainment. Research suggests the tax credits have led to higher quality care and education as large numbers of educators increase their credentials and are rewarded with higher wages.

To read more about efforts to increase the pay and change the way we prepare the early education workforce, check out New America’s “Thriving Workforce; Thriving Early Learners” page.