Yenifer Galicia, who has worked at From the Heart Preschool in Los Angeles for three years, watches over the children on Monday. Her boss, Betty Luckett, is planning to increase the rates she charges parents to give employees a raise.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
LaWanda Wesley had been working in child care for more than two decades, but no matter what she did, she couldn’t seem to get a meaningful raise or the promotion she felt she deserved. Her salary was stuck at around $19 an hour.
She earned her master’s degree in educational leadership and policy studies, then a doctorate in educational leadership and management — all while raising five children as a single mother. But the organizations she worked for told her not to expect any pay difference or title change. At one point, Wesley, who is Black, was demoted and asked to train a white co-worker to be her supervisor. At another, a company was audited by the state and required to give her a 7% raise because she was so underpaid.
“The message I got as a Black woman in early education was that no matter what you do — what letters and degree attainment — this is your place. And this place is not one of value,” said Wesley. “I remember feeling so less than, so demeaned and confused.”
Women of color make up nearly two-thirds of the early childhood workforce in California, yet they routinely earn lower wages and hold lower positions than their white peers — even when they have more education, according to a new report from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley.
The researchers surveyed 7,500 individuals working in the child-care sector in late 2020 and found:
Black and Latina educators are more likely to be employed in lower-paying roles.
Black educators are not rewarded with pay increases for obtaining a higher educational degree.
Black, Latina and Asian teachers receive smaller pay increases when they are promoted to director of a child-care center than do their white peers.
White educators make up 35% of the overall workforce but hold 54% of leadership positions.
Latinas represent 40% of the early childhood workforce but make up 24% of child-care center directors.
Black directors earn $3,600 less and Latina directors earn $7,700 less than Asian or white center directors
While Black educators make up 8% of the total early child-care workforce, they are 13% of in-home child-care providers, who are the most likely to report economic worries.
“People often assume that more education leads to higher wages or job advancements, but our data showed that wasn’t the case,” said Yoonjeon Kim, a lead research analyst at the UC Berkeley center. “Black educators were just as educated as white educators, but they were paid less,” Kim said.
Comments