This report was produced in collaboration with the National Institute for Early Education Research.

This brief is the first resource in a three-part series on pre-K teacher compensation parity, jointly undertaken by CSCCE and NIEER. The brief develops a framework for understanding pre-K teacher compensation parity in contrast to other forms of compensation improvement for pre-K teachers and provides a summary of the current landscape of state policies, detailed further in the companion piece Teacher Compensation Parity Policies and State-Funded Pre-K Programs.

This brief, Educator Expectations, Qualifications, and Earnings: Shared Challenges and Divergent Systems in ECE and K-12 focuses in depth on two specific aspects of personnel systems – educator qualification requirements and earnings – and includes new assessments based on updated data.

Accompanying the brief is a chart, Comparison of Personnel Systems for K-12 and Early Childhood Teachers: Qualifications and Compensation, which provides an overview of the characteristics of teachers in K-12 and ECE.

This brief builds on a previous report, Building a Skilled Teacher Workforce: Shared and Divergent Challenges in Early Care and Education and in Grades K-12, which was released in 2014.

Notwithstanding valiant efforts and some significant progress over the past few decades, an early care and education (ECE) workforce data deficit has endured, with persistent shortcomings in our data collection efforts at the national and state levels. Yet the early childhood field needs data-driven policy solutions. Only data can reveal inequities in access to professional development and better working conditions for early educators and inequities in access to highly qualified, well-supported early educators for children. Only data can provide the information needed to advocate for change.

As illustrated by the calls for better workforce data beginning in the 1970s, the time is long overdue to prioritize a more robust ECE workforce data agenda and to advocate for the necessary resources. Toward this agenda, we describe the existing data deficit and its consequences and outline the features of comprehensive and sound data. We apply these criteria to understand the strengths and challenges of workforce registries and surveys, the most common data collection mechanisms employed by states. We also highlight several promising practices in the states to combat these challenges.

Teaching in early care and education (ECE) programs is one of the lowest-paid occupations in the United States. In 2017, median wages for early educators ranged from $10.72 per hour (or $22,290 full-time per year) to $13.94 per hour (or $28,990 full-time per year). These are quite literally poverty-level wages: the federal poverty threshold for a family of four in 2017 was $24,600.

Low wages for early educators are not a new challenge. Compensation has been low in this field since its inception, but only recently have the public, policymakers, and other stakeholders begun to appreciate the full ramifications of paying such low wages for this crucial work – work that is performed mostly by women, nearly half of whom are women of color.

As a result of this increasing awareness of the problems of low wages, a growing consensus within the early childhood field recognizes that something must be done to improve compensation. Yet, little consensus exists on the primary reasons for compensation reform, what compensation reform looks like, and how to achieve compensation reform. To provide clarification and guidance, this report summarizes recent research on wage standards and critically assesses existing initiatives intended to address the problem of low wages in ECE. The report also outlines the position of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) on the following three core areas of debate: why we need compensation reform, what compensation reform looks like, and how to achieve compensation reform.

The Early Childhood Workforce Index provides a state-by-state look at policies and conditions affecting the early care and education workforce. This biennial report has tracked state progress since 2016.

This third, 2020 edition of the Index continues to track state policies in essential areas like workforce qualifications, work environments, and compensation. The report provides updated policy recommendations and spotlights state responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Index provides a current appraisal of workforce conditions and policies across states. It is divided into four topical chapters:

1. About the Workforce provides a national snapshot of characteristics of the early educator workforce across settings and discusses state-level variation.

2. Earnings and Economic Security provides national and state data on ECE workforce pay in relation to other occupations and presents new analyses of pay.

3. Early Childhood Workforce Policies assesses state policies in five areas: qualifications and educational supports; work environments; compensation and financial relief strategies; workforce data; and financial resources.

4. Family and Income Support Policies assesses state policies across occupations in two areas: income supports and health and well-being.

These indicators represent opportunities for state policies that have the potential to enhance the lives of the many children and adults affected by ECE employment conditions. Throughout the Index we spotlight recent research or promising developments that advance new policies or improved conditions.

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