Pennsylvania’s Child Care System: Access, Affordability, and Quality
in their service markets, they don’t want to drive families away with high prices or cause them to lose a job or opportunity due to a lack of child care. For this reason, providers often do not charge families the true cost of the child care expenses they incur in caring for each child, leaving many programs financially vulnerable or one crisis away from shutting their doors. In fact, the disruption to the child care sector during the pandemic, has led to a net loss statewide of 598 providers pre- pandemic through May 2023. 39 Inadequate funding for the child care system has led to issues of supply and demand that impact a family’s ability to find affordable, high-quality child care and child care providers’ ability to be compensated fairly to pay their teachers and maintain business expenses. A study by the Penn State Harrisburg Institute of State and Regional Affairs noted the median cost for personnel is approximately 70% of a child care program’s budget. 40 And care for infants and toddlers is much greater than care for older children, largely due to the staff-to-child ratio requirements to maintain compliance with the state’s child care regulations. Staff-to-child ratios are essential to ensure the health and safety of the children in care, along with other regulations that reflect the importance of health and safety and prioritize quality care for developing children. Providing quality care is expensive. As child care programs move higher in Pennsylvania’s quality rating system, additional requirements must be met by the staff to maintain high-quality practices. With no other choice, child care providers are forced to set low weekly rates to ensure families can afford the service, thus impacting the providers’ ability to adequately compensate their professional staff, leading to a workforce crisis across the state.
In Pennsylvania, the average hourly wage of an early childhood educator is less than $12.50/ hour, meaning nearly half of the child care professionals in the state are eligible for public benefits. Further, in all counties across the state, a child care professional’s earnings failed to meet the cost-of-living. 41 Even worse, racial disparities exist within the professional child care sector, with Black educators earning approximately 2% less than their white counterparts. Hispanic educators earn approximately 5% less than white educators, exacerbating the already low wages of the sector and deepening inequities and gaps in pay. A recent
Child care teachers leaving the workforce
9%
19%
15%
19% 38%
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2023 State of Early Care and Education
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