Low wages and lack of benefits have created a shortage of early learning educators, and impeded efforts to recruit new teachers. Some communities have used enhanced compensation strategies such as stipends, wage supplements, retention bonuses and grants to increase the pay of early educators and improve retention of early educators.
First 5 Contra Costa believes this type of approach could be a solution to the child care compensation crisis in our county.
Download the Designing a Wage Increase Pilot: A Framework for Supporting Early Educators in Contra Costa County, August 2024 report by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, University of California, Berkeley, which provides information on a wage supplement pilot to address Contra Costa County’s growing early childhood education shortage.
Download The Early Care and Education Workforce of Contra Costa County, January 2024 report by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, University of California, Berkeley, which provides a snapshot of fiscal and holistic well-being of the licensed ECE workforce in Contra Costa County.
Caring for tomorrow means addressing the unmet needs of our county’s early educators today. Sign on to support this model being implemented in our county and receive updates: bit.ly/4e-support-letter
For more information, contact Mackenzie Whipps at mwhipps@first5coco.org.