On Equal Pay Day, CT Can Show Leadership — And 'Send a Strong Signal to Child Care Providers That They Are Valued'

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, March 15, 2022
Contact: Wende Gozan Brown at 347-526-5520; wende@allourkin.org

ON EQUAL PAY DAY, CT CAN SHOW LEADERSHIP - AND ‘SEND A STRONG SIGNAL TO CHILD CARE PROVIDERS THAT THEY ARE VALUED’

On Equal Pay Day - following rallies across Connecticut to demand fair compensation for child care workers - Jessica Sager, CEO and Co-Founder of All Our Kin, released the following statement:

(New Haven, CT) – “Today, on Equal Pay Day, hundreds of passionate, deeply knowledgeable child care experts and practitioners stood shoulder to shoulder across Connecticut to raise our voices in a collective ask: for the state to invest in child care and ensure that providers, including family child care educators, receive a living wage.

“We have never seen a statewide action the likes of this. It was proof positive that child care is in crisis, with providers hanging on by a thread as they struggle to pay their bills month after month. These are early childhood educators who are charged with raising our next generation of leaders, yet they are compelled to leave the industry in droves for higher-paying jobs. Our very economic recovery is left hanging in the balance; without child care, how can parents, especially women, return to work?

“Equal Pay Day symbolizes how far into the current year that women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year. For child care providers, that gap can be even worse. It is an industry largely built on the backs of Black and Brown women, many of whom had a median annual income of $25,000 before the pandemic, leaving them straddling the federal poverty line. The same can be said for a single mother raising two children on a similar salary - the cost of child care in Connecticut exceeds her annual income.

“But out of crisis comes opportunity. Today we are asking the State to make a $700 million investment in child care. These funds would be a strong signal to child care providers that they are valued, and that they won’t be forced to shut down and leave the families who love and depend on them. It is a moment for Connecticut to show leadership at a time when states across the U.S. are also reckoning with their child care crises. We urge Connecticut to seize this moment and demonstrate to the whole country what it means to begin fixing our broken child care system.”