Childcare study finds low pay, few parent resources
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Preschool workers make about twice as much while kindergarten teachers can earn a median hourly wage of $21.
Some early childhood educators in Hawaii earn an unlivable wage while parents have few resources to pay for childcare.
Hawaii News Now reports median hourly pay at $9.07 puts the workers among the worst paid in a national University of California-Berkeley study.
The Center for the Study of Child Care Employment also found that the median wage is 7 percent lower than it was five years ago despite Hawaii’s high cost of living.
Preschool workers make about twice as much while kindergarten teachers can earn a median hourly wage of $21.
The study says there are no tax policies or subsidies for Hawaii parents and the state could do more to help families cover costs.
A fifth of Hawaii’s kids younger than 5 years old live in low-income households.
23 responses to “Childcare study finds low pay, few parent resources”
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“The study says there are no tax policies or subsidies for Hawaii parents and the state could do more to help families cover costs.”>>> Parents should only have kids they can afford and then “the state” (aka taxpayers) wouldn’t have to be involved. Parents make the bad decisions and WE’RE to pay for those decisions? I think not.
I could not agree more. Neighbors paying for their neighbors’ irresponsibilty and problems needs to stop.
I strongly support early education but am less interested in day care. Preschool teachers in the DOE/charters are paid at the same rate as a high school science teacher. This article seems to lack a great deal of information.
$9.07 per hour, how embarrassing. Its about time the people realize that having children cost money. If you can’t afford, don’t have kids and learn to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Its all about responsibility! ZPG!
Why would you want to pay the person to whom you entrust your most precious child, only 9$/hour?
What’s the difference between early childhood educators and pre school educator?
Usually the difference is having verses not having a college degree.
Yes its a degree that makes difference. Also, pre school is education and day care is “day car” or group babysitting!
Why would you pay anyone any amount of money to do what you should be doing! Why don’t you adopt your kids out to a stable family with a stay at home mother!
Some are single moms or moms with a career. They are just doing what it takes to get their child proper care and a head start in education.
That’s the point. They shouldn’t have kids. Can’t they use protection?
How something is written really influences perception. “A fifth of Hawaii’s kids younger than 5 years old live in low-income households.” sounds really awful. “80 percent of kids come from households that are not low-income” sounds much less so. I used to tell kids to be very aware of bias in their writing. Perhaps professional journalists would do well to be aware of this also.
Its called statisticulation, the ability to use statics to get an edge!
It is very apparent, in Hawaii, compensation for educators as a whole is not a priority. Looking at a starting teacher’s pay at low $40k which is despicable. Starting Police earns $60K…. Must be the teachers unions incompetency in bargaining or the priorities of the legislators. TAKE YOUR PICK.
Priorites! Our value system is warped!
Or our value system is correct!
Teachers should consider becoming a police officer if they want a higher salary. Construction workers probably make even more than police officers these days.
Clarification: Police Recruit (training @ the academy, Not a Police yet) $58,572
After Graduation from Academy: Base pay $60,888 + allowances and OT.
The study is bogus. It compares wages for baby sitters to wages for teachers. It is like comparing dishwashers in a restaurant to wages for the executive chef.
Why should we have to pay to take care of people’s kids from pregnancy to post-graduate?
Because liberal politicians say so.
“A fifth of Hawaii’s kids younger than 5 years old live in low-income households.”
Maybe these folks shouldn’t be making babies?
I have been closely involved with four different low-income households on a long term basis. One has seven kids and one father, two families have six children and three fathers each, another has eight kids and two daddies. One family is homeless and has non-English speaking parents. All of the mothers love their children very much and are very caring. One of the local dads loves his kids very much and is very caring. One similarity is that all of these families are on welfare. One mother is recently employed; all other parents are unemployed. Meth use is involved in the three local households. Interestingly, all three local mothers are covered with tattoos. The only family which has a good chance of staying together and succeeding is the family with seven kids. The dealmaker is their strong familial support with both sets of grandparents, and uncles and aunties. I totally agree that all of these couples should never have had children. They can’t take care of themselves, even without children.