Massachusetts Early Education Workforce Profile
The Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley produces an annual early education workforce profile for each state. The 2020 Profile of the Workforce in Massachusetts demonstrates how our state’s early educators are struggling and why the Common Start legislation is needed.
From the report: “In 2019 the median wage for child care workers was $14.11, a 6% increase since 2017. For preschool teachers the median wage was $17.55, a 7% increase since 2017. For preschool or child care center directors, the median wage was $25.86, a 9% decrease since 2017.”
“Early educators pay a penalty for working with younger children. Massachusetts early educators with a bachelor’s degree are paid 35.2 percent less than their colleagues in the K-8 system. The poverty rate for early educators in Massachusetts is 15.3 percent, much higher than for Massachusetts workers in general (8.7 percent) and 6.6 times as high as for K-8 teachers (2.3 percent).”