COVID-19 Relief Funding and the Child Care Workforce

Grant description:

Policymakers are grappling with how to support the child care sector after the COVID-19 public health crisis. Problems with the child care sector were apparent well before the onset of the pandemic: Parents paid high care costs, care workers were underpaid and left the field in high numbers, child care programs experienced unsustainable operating costs and closed their doors, and child care quality suffered. Without access to safe and affordable care, parents work less and have less income, and businesses struggle to retain qualified workers. This project will study a new initiative to increase public funding for U.S. child care workers via a wage supplement program with funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. In 2022, the state of Wisconsin and the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin substantially expanded the statewide REWARD program, which provides financial support to early childhood educators, and the City of Milwaukee Early Childhood Workforce Stipend Program. The expanded programs dramatically increased stipends available to eligible caregivers. The authors will examine the extent to which increased wage supplements keep qualified workers in the field and reduce turnover in the childcare workforce. Evidence from similar programs in other states finds a significant reduction in teacher turnover, indicating that wage subsidies could be effective. Given the dearth of research on the effectiveness of stipends, this research could provide more evidence to shape policy solutions.