Skip to content
Family with home visitor

Growing Wages: The Impact of Salary Floors on Illinois Home Visitors

In this blog post, Rowan Atwood, policy specialist, shares reflections on the state’s opportunity to utilize salary floors in home visiting as part of the IDEC transition.

Rowan Atwood July 28, 2025
  • Policy and Systems
  • Blog

The Illinois home visiting workforce plays a critical role in supporting young children and families, ensuring they receive the care, guidance and resources they need for a strong start in life. Recognizing the importance of recruiting and retaining a highly qualified workforce, and at the request of numerous advocates and programs over many years, the Illinois Department of Human Services Division of Early Childhood (IDHS-DEC) released salary floors for their home visiting workforce in FY23, to be required starting in FY25. The newly released FY25 Illinois Home Visiting Compensation Report demonstrates the significant progress made—but also highlights the continued need for investment as IDHS-DEC and Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) home visiting programs transition to the newly created Illinois Department of Early Childhood (IDEC) in FY26. 

Why Salary Floors Matter

The introduction of salary floors—on the recommendation of advocates and the Health and Home Visiting committee of the Illinois Early Learning Council—was a key step in addressing workforce challenges including recruitment, staff retention, disparities between programs and systemic under-compensation. By ensuring home visitors and supervisors receive a minimum level of compensation, IDHS-DEC has made meaningful strides toward building a more stable and supported workforce. 

According to the report, 100% of home visitors in IDHS-DEC and MIECHV programs now meet or exceed the mandated salary floor. Furthermore, 88% of supervisors are now meeting the recommended salary levels, even though their salary floor was not required by the state. This progress underscores that setting clear compensation expectations can drive real change, as well as potentially improve other factors, such as retention and the quality of services. There is a need for additional data in this area to determine whether these salary floors are sufficient, as well as precisely how salaries impact other aspects of home visiting programs and workforce retention. With the creation of IDEC, the state now has the opportunity to build this data into the structure of the Illinois home visiting system going forward.

Stay Connected

Stay up to date on early childhood policy issues and how you can take action to ensure more children have access to quality early learning and care in Illinois.

Learn More

Ongoing Changes: A Call for Continued Action

While this report shows significant progress, it also raises concerns about the slowing pace of salary increases. After an initial surge in compensation following the implementation of recommended salary floors, wage growth has decelerated. The average home visitor salary increased by just 2% from FY24 to FY25, while inflation continues to rise, threatening to erode these gains. Without further action, the home visiting workforce will continue to face challenges in achieving and sustaining competitive wages, which could impact recruitment and retention efforts in the coming years. 

What’s Next?

The achievements of IDHS-DEC and MIECHV programs are a milestone, but it’s not the final step. There’s still work to do to ensure home visitors and supervisors receive fair and competitive wages in the face of economic changes. 

  1. Advocate for Continued Funding: We urge state leaders to commit to ongoing salary adjustments that make wages competitive and keep pace with inflation. 
  2. Support Workforce Retention Efforts: Higher wages are essential, but so are professional development opportunities, benefits and workplace support. Additional support is necessary to retain skilled home visitors. 
  3. Share Successes: The overwhelming success of salary floors for IDHS-DEC and MIECHV home visiting programs highlights the potential impact of implementing salary floors for providers, but not all funders have implemented salary floors yet. We encourage funders—both within home visiting and across other early childhood programs—to consider implementing salary floors as part of their continued investment in the early childhood workforce. 

Looking Ahead

Illinois IDHS-DEC programs have taken a bold and necessary step by implementing a salary floor for home visitors, and the results prove its effectiveness. However, this success must be maintained and expanded. As inflation rises and workforce needs evolve, further efforts will be required to ensure competitive, livable wages for home visitors and the early childhood workforce at large. 

By advocating for sustained and increased funding, we can continue to strengthen the home visiting workforce—ensuring every child and family receives the support they deserve. Now is the time to build on this progress and secure a future where early childhood professionals are valued, supported and fairly compensated. 

About the Author

Naomi Black wears a red jacket standing in front of a brick wall

Rowan Atwood

Policy Specialist, Illinois Policy

Rowan Atwood, MSW, is a Policy Specialist on the Illinois Policy Team, where they focus on combining administrative advocacy and data analysis to support policy change.

More About Rowan

More Like This

Let's talk icon

Stay Connected

Stay up to date on early childhood policy issues and how you can take action to ensure more children have access to quality early learning and care in Illinois.

Sign Up

Support Our Work icon

Illinois Policy & Advocacy

For decades, our policy team has been a leading voice and advocate for early learning and care in Illinois.

Learn More

Contact Us

Connect with our team to learn more about our work or discuss how we can support policy and advocacy work for your organization.

Email Our Team