Madison LammertAppleton Post-Crescent
If you search Google for the lowest-paying jobs in America, chances are "child care workers” will pop up.
This holds true in Wisconsin.
The median hourly wage of Wisconsin child care workers is $13.78, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2023 data. Nationwide, it's $14.60.
Despite the majority of Wisconsin’s early childhood educators having some college education or degree, they make less than many professions and often don't receive job-sponsored benefits.
The effect of child care workers' low pay extends to Wisconsin’s families, too. It’s one of the driving forces behind industry-wide staffing shortages, which limit the number of child care options for parents.
Who makes more in Wisconsin, child care workers or doggie daycare workers?
Here’s how Wisconsin child care workers’ wages stack up to those of similar-paying professions, based on the BLS 2023 data:
- Child care workers and animal caretakers, such as doggie daycare workers, earn roughly the same median hourly wage. Animal caretakers make just $0.04 less than child care workers.
- Cashiers ($13.95), hotel desk clerks ($14.61), maids and housekeeping workers ($15.47) and hairdressers and cosmetologists ($17.41) all make more than child care workers.
Even among child care workers in Wisconsin, there are pay variations. Family providers, meaning those who operate within their own home, typically make even less than center-based workers, previous state data shows.
Do Wisconsin child care workers make a livable wage?
No, not when comparing the BLS data to the state’s living wages, as listed in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator, updated in early 2024. This holds true regardless of whether a child care worker is in a single or dual income household, and if one has no children or three.
For example, a child care worker who's single and has no kids would need to make $20.22 per hour to earn a living wage in Wisconsin. The exact living wage varies by location.
In some circ*mstances, the $13.78 median hourly wage of Wisconsin child care workers is classified as a poverty-level wage, according to the calculator.
Economic insecurity is nothing new for the field. A nationwide study conducted between 2012 and 2013 found the majority of early education teachers surveyed feared they wouldn’t be able to pay monthly bills, and almost half expressed food insecurity.
Why are Wisconsin child care wages so low?
Answers vary, depending on who's asked, but often include one or more of the following:
- Lack of respect for the profession
- Lack of government investment
- The business model child care programs often operate under
Child care programs often have few — if any — revenue sources outside the price families pay for care. That revenue has to cover a plethora of costs, not just workers' pay. Many of those costs aren't flexible, such as rent or mortgages.
It’s not as simple as slimming down staffing to allow the remaining workers to earn more. When child care programs are short-staffed, they can’t serve as many children. And when that happens, revenue declines.
More: Child care in Wisconsin can cost more than college. Why is it so expensive?
What can be done to raise Wisconsin child care workers' pay?
Raising wages often means increasing what families are charged for care at a time when many already struggle to pay. Increasing the cost of child care risks pricing families out of the market.
That's why many advocates are calling for Wisconsin’s Legislature to invest in the industry. Multiple child care providers have told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin that Child Care Counts, a program that distributes pandemic relief dollars to child care programs, has allowed them to raise wages without having to make large, if any, rate increases.
Child Care Counts is set to continue through June 2025. But advocates warning that, if Wisconsin doesn’t take action before then, there will be major consequences, such as many child care programs closing and many children being left without care.
While Republicans passed a package of bills last session aimed at helping the industry and the families who rely on it, few were signed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. One that was signed expands a state tax credit for children’s care expenses. Another that was signed gives businesses a tax credit of up to 15 percent of their investment in creating an employee child care program.
More: Milwaukee is building 42 homes for child care providers. That will help them keep their jobs
Madison Lammert covers child care and early education across Wisconsin as a Report for America corps memberbased at The Appleton Post-Crescent.To contact her, emailmlammert@gannett.comor call 920-993-7108.Please consider supporting journalism that informs our democracy withatax-deductible gift to Report for Americaby visitingpostcrescent.com/RFA
