Even before COVID-19, the early care and education industry, critical to Minnesota’s workers and employers, had been experiencing a quiet crisis. While the cost of care is high, wages are below that of other occupations with similar qualifications and many positions pay below the basic cost of living in the communities in which these programs operate. These low wages do not provide staff the financial resources or incentives to obtain credentials and move up career ladders that offer little or no pay increase. As a result, programs struggle to find and keep qualified staff to meet basic licensing requirements even as parents struggle to cover the costs. These problems compromise the quality of care for young children who benefit from well-trained and consistent caregivers and high-quality learning environments. high-quality care often costs more than parents can pay, resulting in underinvestment in our young children. Moreover, research shows that children who experience the greatest gains from a quality, stable child care environment – lower income children, children of color and indigenous children - are in families that face the greatest barriers to affording and accessing that care. This underinvestment, in turn, compromises the ability of parents with young children to fully participate in the labor market and the ability of businesses to hire and retain these workers. Simultaneously, it results in missed opportunities to ensure our future workforce has the chance early in their lives that help them thrive in the future.
