[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-585858-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-585858-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","jobs-in-the-balance-the-early-employment-impacts-of-washington-dcs-early-childhood-educator-pay-equity-fund","Jobs in the Balance - The Early Employment Impacts of Washington, DC’s Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund","","Childcare and early education (CCEE) educators are among the lowest-paid U.S. workers, with large wage gaps, higher poverty exposure, and elevated turnover—especially for infant and toddler educators. Washington, DC launched the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund (PEF) to supplement educator wages and support compensation equity with DC Public Schools teachers. This brief evaluates immediate employment impacts of initial PEF lump-sum payments delivered in Fall 2022.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/jobs-in-the-balance-the-early-employment-impacts-of-washington-dcs-early-childhood-educator-pay-equity-fund/585858/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/jobs-in-the-balance-the-early-employment-impacts-of-washington-dcs-early-childhood-educator-pay-equity-fund/585858.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Riley West","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-24","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",5,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"Why are CCEE educators a focus for pay equity research?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"CCEE educators receive some of the lowest pay in the United States and are disproportionately women of color. They also experience higher poverty rates and turnover, which can undermine stable relationships needed for children’s development.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"What is the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund (PEF)?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"The PEF is Washington, DC’s publicly funded program created to supplement early childhood educator wages. It aims to achieve compensation equity with DC Public Schools (DCPS) teachers, including through payments delivered beginning in Fall 2022.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What employment outcomes does this brief examine?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"The brief examines the immediate impacts of initial PEF lump-sum payments on CCEE employment levels in Washington, DC.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},585858,1792166107,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,100,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":55,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},1099523885074,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc","Early Childhood Research Brief  \nOwen Schochet  \nJobs in the Balance: The Early Employment Impacts of Washington, DC’s Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund  \nBackground  \nDespite the contributions of their work to the learning and development of young children, childcare and early education (CCEE) educators are among the lowest-paid workers in the United States. CCEE educators, who are predominantly female and are disproportionately women of color, earn less than other employees in a range of similar roles requiring comparable skills and education. In 2022, the median hourly wage for CCEE educators was $13.71, 38 percent below the $22.26 median hourly  \nwage of other similar occupations (Exhibit 1; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS], 2023) . Significant portions ofCCEE educators live in poverty and rely on public assistance benefits (Gould 2015) . In 2020, CCEE educators were almost eight times as likely to live in poverty compared to K-8 educators (McLean et al. 2021) . Furthermore, wages for CCEE educators working with infants and toddlers tend to be lower compared to those working with preschool-age children.  \nExhibit 1. The median hourly wage for CCEE educators was 38 percent below the median hourly wage in other similar occupations (May 2022)  \nChild care workers, all settings  \nPreschool teachers, all settings  \nPreschool teachers, in schools  \nChild care administrators, all settings  \nKindergarten teachers  \nElementary teachers  \nAll occupations  \n$22.26  \n$0 $10 $20 $30 $40  \nSource: Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U. S. Department of Labor and the Early Childhood Workforce Index 2020. Retrieved from [http://stats.bls.gov/oes](http://stats.bls.gov/oes and)[ and](http://stats.bls.gov/oes and) [https://cscce.berkeley.edu/](https://cscce.berkeley.edu/)[ ](https://cscce.berkeley.edu/)[workforce-index-2020/report-pdf](workforce-index-2020/report-pdf.)[.](workforce-index-2020/report-pdf.)  \nSEPTEMBER 2023 > [mathematica.org](mathematica.org)  \n1  \nLike any other profession, adequate compensation is necessary to attract and retain the best workers, and recruiting and retaining workers has been a longstanding issue for the CCEE field. For instance, some estimates suggest that as many as 25 to 40 percent ofCCEE educators left their employer within a year, which is more than double the turnover rates for K-12 teachers (Caven et al.  \n2021; Doromal et al. 2022[a]; Bryant et al. 2023) .  \nTurnover rates are particularly high among teachers working with infants and toddlers; one study reported annual turnover rates of nearly 50 percent for this population (Bassok et al. 2021) .  \nCCEE educators in center-based settings with lower compensation (Bellows et al. 2021), those who identify as racial and ethnic minorities, who have lower levels of education, and who have the lowest household incomes are also more likely to leave their jobs (Schochet and Caronongan 2022) . High CCEE turnover presents several challenges to the CCEE sector by disrupting the stable relationships needed to foster children’s development (BratschHines et al. 2020), and by requiring administrators and staff to reallocate their attention away from quality improvement efforts and towards recruiting new staff or filling in for their colleagues who left (Doromal et al. 2022[b]) .  \nThese findings stress the need for focused efforts to mitigate the considerable compensation disparities across the CCEE sector. Particular attention should be given to supporting educators of the youngest children, who tend to be the most poorly compensated and the hardest to retain. Ina pioneering effort, Washington, DC has launched the nation’s first large-scale, publicly-funded program to supplement CCEE educator wages. The Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund (herein referred to as the PEF) was created to achieve compensation equity with DC Public Schools (DCPS) teachers (Greenberg et al. 2023) . This initiative, launched in Fal","cbCaijCZqhJWOpy8","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaijCZqhJWOpy8","pdf",1453912,14,"English","# Background\n## Wage disparities and turnover in CCEE\n## The Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund (PEF)\n# Washington, DC policy context\n## Pre-K Enhancement and Expansion Act (2008)\n## Birth-to-Three for All DC Act (2018) and PEF rollout\n# Exhibit 1: Median hourly wages and comparisons","[{\"question\":\"Why are CCEE educators a focus for pay equity research?\",\"answer\":\"CCEE educators receive some of the lowest pay in the United States and are disproportionately women of color. They also experience higher poverty rates and turnover, which can undermine stable relationships needed for children’s development.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund (PEF)?\",\"answer\":\"The PEF is Washington, DC’s publicly funded program created to supplement early childhood educator wages. It aims to achieve compensation equity with DC Public Schools (DCPS) teachers, including through payments delivered beginning in Fall 2022.\"},{\"question\":\"What employment outcomes does this brief examine?\",\"answer\":\"The brief examines the immediate impacts of initial PEF lump-sum payments on CCEE employment levels in Washington, DC.\"}]","Jobs in the Balance - The Early Employment Impacts of Washington, DC’s Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund | PDF",1792056164,35]