Child care workers aren’t paid enough to make ends meet: Child care worker wages, employer-provided benefits, and poverty rates, 2014
| Child care workers | All other workers | Difference | Child care penaltya | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Real median hourly wage (2014 dollars) | $10.31 | $17.00 | -39.3% | 23.0%*** |
| Employer-provided health insurance coverage | 15.0% | 49.9% | -34.9 ppt. | 27.0 ppt.*** |
| Employer-provided pension coverage | 9.6% | 39.0% | -29.4 ppt. | 24.1 ppt.*** |
| Poverty rate | 14.7% | 6.7% | 7.9 ppt. | 5.9 ppt.*** |
| 200% Poverty rate | 36.7% | 21.1% | 15.6 ppt. | 10.8 ppt.*** |
a. Difference between wages/coverage rate/poverty rate of child care workers and that of demographically similar workers in other occupations
*** indicates significance at the .01 level
Note: Poverty rates refer to the share of workers whose family income places them below the indicated poverty line. OLS regressions control for gender, nativity, citizenship, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, age, marital status, urbanicity, region of the country, and year. Complete regression results available from the author upon request. To ensure sufficient sample sizes, this table draws from pooled 2012–2014 microdata.
Source: EPI analysis of Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group microdata and Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement microdata
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