High quality childcare is a necessity for women in America. Women make up close to
half of the labor force in the United States, and most women with children have paying
jobs. High quality, affordable child care is key to enabling mothers to participate
in the paid work force and to be economically self-sufficient. Although availability
and quality of child care has improved over the past few decades, working conditions
for those women who care for children have changed little. The job of the child care
worker remains low status, with poor wages, few benefits, and high levels of employee
turnover, forcing women who are child care workers to work for wages that do not reflect
their real contributions to society.
In 2008, there were 28,370 child care workers in Tennessee. The two largest employers
of child care workers are (1) private household based care (24.4%) and (2) child day
care center services (24.3%). The other half of all child care workers employed in
Tennessee are hired by religious organizations, civic organizations, recreational
businesses, residential care facilities, and colleges and universities. Wages and
salaries are modest at best: an average of $8.80 per hour or $18,265 per year for
full-time work across the state. There were 3,050 child care workers in the Memphis
MSA in 2012, up from 2,750 in 2010. Wages in Memphis are similar to the overall Tennessee
average: a mean of $8.60 per hour in 2012, up from an average of $8.31 in 2010. There
is a very small range of salaries for this type of work, with entry level child care
workers earning $8.10 per hour, and experienced workers earning $8.85 per hour.
This level of wages would provide a full-time, single individual with a yearly salary
of $17,850 in 2012, 160% of the current poverty threshold for an individual. However,
it is only 94% of the poverty threshold for a family of three. Importantly, the poverty
threshold does not allow an individual or family to lead a life free of public subsidies.
To earn a living wage in Memphis (e.g., a salary that would allow a one-adult family
of three to be minimally independent of public subsidies) requires an hourly wage
of $17.83 per hour or a full time salary of $35,666 per year. If an experienced child
care worker, earning $8.85 per hour, wished to support her family at a living wage
level, she would have to work close to 77 hours per week, almost twice the normal
The plight of the child care worker is a classic example of domestic work that has
been transformed into a market-based business. Though paid, the market shows little
value for the child care worker. These (typically) women work in a secondary labor
force on the periphery of the economy. Government regulations are non-existent, lax,
or easy to avoid. Women who work as child care workers find the labor market crowded
with applicants because the rules for entering this occupation are poorly defined.
Rules for hiring, retention, and day-to-day activities tend to be vague and changeable.
The job does not have specific or enforceable educational certifications. Enhanced
educational qualifications often have little or no payoff in terms of wages. These
jobs tend to have no career ladders to higher positions based on further education,
performance, or seniority.