ED419614 PS026527
Title: Worthy Work, Unlivable Wages: The National Child Care Staffing
Study, 1988-1997.
Author(s): Whitebook, Marcy; Howes, Carollee; Phillips, Deborah
Author Affiliation: Center for the Child Care Workforce, Washington,
DC.(BBB34905)
Pages: 25
Publication Date: 1998
ISBN: 1-889956-16-3
Available from: EDRS Price MF01 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from
EDRS.
Availability: Center for the Child Care Workforce, 733 15th Street,
N.W., Suite 1037, Washington, DC 20005-2112; phone: 800-U-R-WORTHY,
202-737-7700; fax: 202-737-0370; World Wide Web: http://www.ccw.org;
e-mail: ccw@ccw.org ($19.95, plus $5 shipping and handling. CCW members
subtract 10%. DC residents must add 5.75% sales tax).
Language: English
Document Type: Reports--Research (143)
Geographic Source: U.S.; District of Columbia
Journal Announcement: RIEOCT1998
In 1988, the
National Child Care Staffing Study first gathered information on
staffing and quality from a sample of child care centers in five
metropolitan areas--Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Phoenix, and Seattle--and
returned for updated information in 1992. In 1997, directors of
the original sample of centers still in operation were contacted
again in order to collect basic information on staffing and funding
nine years after the first data collection. Findings included: (1)
child care teaching staff continue to earn low wages, even in a
sample of relatively high-quality centers; (2) approximately one-third
of child care centers employ welfare Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families
(TANF) recipients, sometimes at less than the prevailing wage and
often with limited training; (3) more child care centers received
public dollars in 1997 than in 1988, allowing more of them to assist
low-income families with child care costs, these dollars have not
resulted in better wages or lower staff turnover; (4) child care
centers continue to experience very high turnover of teaching staff,
threatening their ability to offer good-quality, consistent services
to children; (5) centers which paid better wages in 1997, as in
1988, experienced less teaching staff turnover--these are also the
centers which were rated higher in quality in 1988; and (6) a substantial
number of centers have improved their level of health coverage,
especially for teachers, during a period of declining levels of
coverage by U.S. employers as a whole--the majority of centers,
however, still offer their teaching staff limited or no health insurance,
despite heavy exposure to illness in child care employment. Recommendations
based on these findings include increasing public funds for child
care, targeted to quality and compensation; and reforming reimbursement
rates. (Contains 15 references.) (EV)
Descriptors: Change Strategies; *Child Care Occupations; Child Caregivers;
Compensation (Remuneration); Day Care; Day Care Centers; Early Childhood
Education; Faculty Mobility; *Quality of Working Life; *Wages
Identifiers: Day Care Quality; *National Child Care Staffing Study
