[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 45 (Thursday, April 21, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 21, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                            WORTHY WAGE DAY

 Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise because today is the third 
annual Worthy Wage Day. This day is meant to call attention to the 
meager wages and benefits earned by those who care for our young 
children.
  I am talking about child care teachers and providers. Today, all 
across the country, these people with whom we entrust our most precious 
resource--our young children--are gathering to demonstrate for 
accessible and affordable child care for American families and decent 
wages and benefits for American child care providers.
  These are not outrageous demands. They are in fact quite modest: fair 
compensation, better training for teachers and providers, health care 
reform that will extend coverage to those who work in child care and 
improved access to child care for all American families.
  The situation today for the vast majority of child care workers is 
precarious. Their jobs rarely pay adequate wages and rarely provide 
basic benefits like health insurance.
  Female child care workers earn less than one-third as much as 
comparably educated men and one-half as much as comparably educated 
women in other fields. Low pay leads to strikingly high staff turnover.
  A handful of statistics will shed some light on this situation:
  Average center-based teacher salaries have fallen by 20 percent since 
the mid-1970's.
  From 1991 to 1992, the turnover rate in child care centers averaged 
26 percent, nearly three times the annual turnover rate reported by all 
American companies.
  Only slightly over one-third of child care centers provide health 
benefits to their employees, according to a 1992 study by the National 
Center for the Early Childhood Work Force.
  Improving pay and benefits for our early childhood work force is not 
just a matter of fairness for child care workers: It is a matter of 
quality care for our children in their early formative years. When 
teachers are inadequately prepared and have a high turnover rate, 
studies show that children do not do as well. They spend a great deal 
of time in aimless activity, not connecting with their teachers, other 
children, or learning materials.
  On this Worthy Wage Day, it is time for us as a nation to recognize 
the invaluable work early childhood workers do. They deserve more than 
a pat on the back, however. They deserve a living wage, and I look 
forward to the day when they will receive it. It is time for us to stop 
shortchanging both our child care workers and our children.

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