Educators who care for infants and toddlers play a crucial role in shaping children’s early development, as the first three years are a period of rapid brain growth and heightened sensitivity to the quality of their environments. In recent years, however, the infant-toddler early care and education (ECE) workforce has faced substantial challenges. Since 2020, programs serving young children have experienced disruptions and elevated turnover driven by persistent low wages, rising operating costs, staffing shortages, and burnout. At the same time, many states have strengthened credential requirements for educators. Understanding how these shifts affect the composition of the workforce is critical for policymakers and ECE leaders working to strengthen quality and ensure families can access reliable care.
For this study, we draw on two nationally representative datasets: the 2019 and 2024 National Survey of Early Care and Education. Our sample includes center-based ECE teachers and assistant teachers serving children ages 3 and younger, representing nearly 700,000 educators in both 2019 and 2024.
Increasingly, ECE educators hold a child development associate (CDA) or a bachelor’s degree, reflecting states’ changes in minimum educational requirements (figure 1). From 2019 to 2024, the share of ECE educators with a bachelor’s degree or higher rose from 21 to 24 percent, while the share with a CDA or a state certificate nearly doubled, rising from 8 to 14 percent.
Average wages for infant-toddler ECE workforce rose from $15 to $17 per hour, even after adjusting for inflation (figure 2). This trend was seen for all educators, except for those with associate degrees, whose wages remained essentially flat. Pay was more strongly linked to credentials. In 2024, educators with a CDA earned about $1.50 more than those with a high school diploma or lower; this difference was minimal in 2019. The same year, educators with a bachelor’s degree earned about $4 more than those with an associate degree; this difference was negligible in 2019.
The racial and ethnic composition of the infant-toddler ECE workforce shifted (table 1). While White educators still made up the largest share of the workforce, from 2019 to 2024, their share declined from 73 to 63 percent; the share of Black educators grew from 20 to 28 percent. The share of women modestly declined from 99 to 96 percent, but the workforce continued to be overwhelmingly female. The age distribution of the ECE workforce remained stable.
