Connecticut childcare workers are set to receive a bonus from the state budget for their work in an effort to provide temporary relief. It also highlights a wage gap that exists among those workers.
“They put smiles on the faces of all the kids, so it’s about time we put the smile on their faces, too," Janna Peruta said.
A smile Peruta would like to see for her daycare workers.
They’re getting bonuses from the State of Connecticut, providing temporary relief and putting a spotlight on the need for quality childcare in the state.
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As the director of Bunny Village Child Development Center in Cheshire, Peruta said it was providing a critical need at the height of the pandemic for essential workers that had to be away from home with schools closed at the time.
“Firefighters had to go to work. Everybody has to go to work but who’s going to take care of the kids? We are,” she said.
Through the Wage Supports for Early Childhood Educators program, $70 million from the state budget will be used to give bonuses to childcare workers: $1,000 for full-time workers or $400 for part-time workers.
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Peruta said that money can make a difference.
“We all have a little bit of extra to pay for with inflation costs, with the things they have to take care of in their everyday lives,” she said.
Governor Ned Lamont said the program is meant to show how critical access to childcare is as the state deals with a shortage of workers.
“So, we're doing everything we can to expand capacity and make sure we continue to attract, you know, great folks to be able to teach in our childcare facilities, and what a difference that makes. So I think it's really key to our economy,” Lamont said.
Allyx Schaivone, director of the Friends Center for Children in New Haven, calls the program a good first step but said a wage gap still needs to be addressed.
“The pay scale of our workforce is so depressed. So, the average early education teacher makes about $24,000 a year,” she said.
She says childcare workers shape the lives of the kids they work with and at least deserve to be paid the same as schoolteachers.
A poll commissioned by the Child Care for Connecticut’s Future coalition shows 75% of voters agree that early care educators should make the same wage as teachers.
“Early childhood educators are brain builders. They’re working with children during a time when 90% of the brain is developed,” Schiavone said.
Peruta said she hopes the state government will allocate more funding to all daycare centers, whether they’re public or private.
“We would be able to give our staff members a livable wage. We would be able to make more affordable childcare,” she said.
State officials say those bonus checks are set to arrive some time this week.
