NC childcare workers earn poverty-level wages, national report says

[SMC22307]

RALEIGH — Child care workers are better educated and are expected to know more about children and their developmental needs than they did 25 years ago.

Yet, many child care workers earn poverty-level wages, according to a national report released Tuesday. Forty-six percent of child care workers nationally use at least one public benefits program such as Medicaid or food stamps, or qualified for the federal earned income tax credit in 2012, according to a report from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California at Berkeley.

Child care workers and kindergarten teachers in North Carolina earned less in real dollars in 2013 than they did in 1997. The actual mean hourly wage for North Carolina child care workers in 2013 was $9.57. In 1997, the mean wage in 2013 dollars was $9.71.

Mean wages for preschool teachers rose slightly, to $12.27 an hour from $11.45 an hour.

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http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/11/18/4331467_nc-childcare-workers-earn-poverty.html?sp=/99/100/&rh=1#storylink=cpy

Did Kay Hagan address low wages during her campaign? I know it was part of the Moral Mondays platform. Who didn't vote in NC? The Berkeley study, for anyone interested:

http://www.irle.berkeley.edu/cscce/2014/report-worthy-work-still-unlivable-wages/

[yeoman6987]

1. Child care workers have never been paid well

It is required to have a Bachelors in many states for the privilege of making 8 dollars an hour caring for our precious children. Crazy!