Early childhood educators play essential roles in providing stable and high-quality child care for young children and supporting their development and growth. As is also true nationwide, historically low wages in the District of Columbia led to challenges in compensating and retaining qualified early childhood educators, and in turn, building quality child care systems from which families benefit. In 2022, the District of Columbia passed legislation to tax the wealthy, generating revenue to increase compensation for early educators working in licensed DC child care programs.
About the Compensation Initiative
The first of its kind nationwide, the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund represents an innovative, long-term, and sustainable strategy for addressing early childhood educator compensation.
The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) implemented the compensation program in three phases:
- In FY2022, it provided one-time supplemental payments to early educators in licensed centers and home-based programs—$14,000 for full-time lead teachers and $10,000 for assistant teachers and associate caregivers.
- In FY2023, the direct payments were distributed over four quarterly installments.
- In FY2024 and subsequent years, funds were distributed to child care facilities as a new revenue stream. To receive the funds, facilities had to meet mandatory minimum educator salaries based on role and credential, or in limited cases, obtain a minimum salary waiver. In addition to raising educator wages, child care facilities could use the funds to support non-educator salaries.
About the Evaluation
Beginning in 2022, our implementation and outcomes evaluation conducted annual surveys of child care program directors and early educators; focus groups with child care program directors and early educators; interviews with policymakers, business leaders, community leaders, and families; and administrative data analyses.
Our work has provided evidence on:
- Take-up and implementation experiences of the compensation program
- Reported outcomes of the compensation program for staff recruitment and retention, early educators’ financial and emotional well-being, child care program stability, and child care affordability in DC’s child care system
We also provide:
- Written testimony regarding the compensation program
- Technical documentation about the evaluation methodology
