Battle for affordable child care wages on Beacon Hill, in Washington - Boston Herald
By Erin Tiernan and Lisa Kashinsky
Two of the Bay State’s most powerful pols — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark — are urging President Biden to make a $700 billion, 10-year investment in universal child care as part of the American Families Plan he’s set to unveil ahead of his Wednesday address to Congress.
Among their asks is to cap out-of-pocket child care costs for families at no more than 7% of their income and raise pay rates for providers to ensure they earn a “living wage.”
It’s a plan that mirrors one being laid out by Beacon Hill lawmakers. State Senate President Karen Spilka has named addressing the “caregiving crisis” as a top priority for the legislative session and for making sure women don’t continue to get cut out of the workforce.
Spilka said she plans to funnel state and federal stimulus money into a solution. Massachusetts expects to receive more than $685 million in federal aid for child care between the CARES Act passed early in the pandemic, the American Rescue Plan and other funding sources.