Worthy Wage Day

Worthy Wage Day is a national day of action held annually on or around May 1st since 1992.

It is designed to raise public awareness of:

• The low wages earned by early childhood educators—teachers and staff that work in child care and pre-kindergarten programs;
• The impact the educator retention crisis has on young children; and
• The chronic public underfunding for child care, pre-k, and early childhood education.

In addition to raising awareness, Worthy Wage Day calls on lawmakers, advocates and communities to commit to finding solutions to address the chronic underfunding of child care, pre-k and early childhood education programs. Research continues to tell us that the most important component of high quality child care and pre-K is the quality and consistency of the educator. As long as early childhood educators are paid poverty-level wages, the United States will never be able to ensure that our youngest children receive the highest-quality child care and pre-K.

Check out our Worthy Wage Day blog series and lend your voice to the call for worthy wages.