ECLS Social Rating Scale (Teacher version) – "Approaches to Learning" Subscale
Category: Student Well-Being
Early educators are among the lowest-paid workers in the United States, in part because most early care and education (ECE) programs operate within constrained business models. In Massachusetts, the Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) program distributes noncompetitive grants to licensed providers that can be used for operational expenses, including workforce investments. Using monthly application data submitted by center-based ECE programs participating in C3 from July 2021 to September 2024, we examined how educator wages changed during the program’s implementation and what factors explain variation in wage growth. We estimate multilevel models to examine wage growth over time and variation across centers and multi-site organizations. Average wages for teachers, assistant teachers, and directors increased between fiscal years 2022 and 2025, though gains are smaller after adjusting for inflation. Baseline wages varied substantially across centers, with differences associated with provider characteristics and community context. Wage growth was faster in centers serving infants and toddlers and centers receiving subsidies, narrowing the pay gaps observed at baseline. Despite these gains, wages remain far below ideal levels, and many baseline disparities persist.
Keywords
Early care and education (ECE); Early childhood workforce; Educator wages; Compensation; Child care stabilization grants; Public funding; Wage disparities; Infant and toddler care; assachusetts
Education level
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/qrfv-mc07
