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A Pathway to Parity in Illinois

Policy Manager Mercedes Mondragón reflects on new Head Start standards.

Mercedes Mondragón October 11, 2024
  • Policy and Systems
  • Blog

The Office of Head Start (OHS) released updated performance standards last month, which focus heavily on the financial and emotional wellbeing of program staff. The new standards require that over the next 7 years, programs must work towards paying teaching staff a salary that is comparable to public school pre-k teachers. This is a monumental policy shift for a workforce that has endured physically demanding work, long hours and low pay for decades. OHS is striving to give the early childhood workforce the recognition and pay parity they so rightfully deserve. We hope Illinois is watching closely. 

Similar to other states, wages for child care teachers in Illinois are woefully low, which has led to high turnover. According to the most recent wage data we have available from fiscal year 2023, the median hourly pay for a lead teacher was $16.50 and for an assistant teacher, the median hourly wage was $15.40. With pay hovering around minimum wage and arduous working conditions, our current workforce crisis should not come as a surprise. 

 

 

circle square corner pie square

Median Child Care Center Wages (FY2023) in Selected Counties

County

Assistant Teacher

Lead Teacher

Cook

$15.25

$17.50

Champaign

$14.00

$16.00

DuPage

$14.57

$17.00

Hancock

$15.00

$15.00

Lake

$14.00

$17.00

Rock Island

$13.00

$15.00

Will

$14.00

$16.00

County

Cook

Champaign

DuPage

Hancock

Lake

Rock Island

Will

Assistant Teacher

Lead Teacher

$15.25

$17.50

$14.00

$16.00

$14.57

$17.00

$15.00

$15.00

$14.00

$17.00

$13.00

$15.00

$14.00

$16.00

Source: Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies 

The Department of Human Services (DHS) launched the Smart Start Workforce Grant (SSWG) program over the summer to increase wages for child care teaching staff to help mitigate the state’s workforce crisis. The Department’s goal was to reach as many early educators as possible. With only $110 million to devote to this effort, it meant they needed to strike a balance between program eligibility and wages. Ultimately, DHS set Child Care Assistance Program eligibility parameters to ensure programs enrolling low-income children would be uplifted. SSWG grantees are required to pay teaching staff a salary floor that is above the minimum wage and all of the funding must go toward wages. 

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Role

Group 1A

Group 1B

Group 2

Wage floor for teachers

$19.25 per hour

$18.50 per hour

$18.25 per hour

Wage floor for assistant teacher

$18.00 per hour

$17.25 per hour

$17.00 per hour

Role

Wage floor for teachers

Wage floor for assistant teacher

Group 1A

Group 1B

Group 2

$19.25 per hour

$18.50 per hour

$18.25 per hour

$18.00 per hour

$17.25 per hour

$17.00 per hour

Group 1A: Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake and McHenry counties.

Group 1B: Boone, Champaign, Kankakee, Madison, McLean, Monroe, Ogle, Peoria, Rock Island, Sangamon, St. Clair, Tazewell, Whiteside, Will, Winnebago and Woodford counties.

Group 2: All counties not listed in Group 1A or 1B

Source: Smart Start Workforce Grants- Gateways to Opportunity

Although the SSWG will increase teachers’ pay, the funding was not enough to reach all early educators, and it remains to be seen whether a few additional dollars per hour will make a true impact in retainment and recruitment. The Office of Head Start made a bold statement by requiring pay parity with preschool teachers in public schools and as a state, we need to act boldly as well. OHS has paved the way and created a roadmap for the remainder of the early care and education field to follow. The $110 million dollar investment in our early educators through the SSWG program should only be seen as a downpayment toward a much larger workforce strategy because our child care teachers simply deserve better. They too, deserve parity.  

About the Author

Mercedes Mondragon_600x600

Mercedes Mondragón

Policy Manager, Illinois Policy

Mercedes Mondragón is a Policy Manager on the Illinois Policy team at Start Early, where she focuses on advocating for improvements to the child care system and alleviating issues faced by the early childhood workforce.

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