Child Care Providers Demand State-Mandated Pay Raises

Dozens of home-based childcare providers joined city officials to protest unpaid state-mandated raises.
Child Care Providers Demand State-Mandated Pay Raises
FAIR PAY: City Comptroller William C. Thompson joined home childcare providers at City Hall on Wednesday to call for state-mandated pay raises. (Li Xin/The Epoch Times)
2/26/2009
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/childcare.jpg" alt="FAIR PAY: City Comptroller William C. Thompson joined home childcare providers at City Hall on Wednesday to call for state-mandated pay raises.  (Li Xin/The Epoch Times)" title="FAIR PAY: City Comptroller William C. Thompson joined home childcare providers at City Hall on Wednesday to call for state-mandated pay raises.  (Li Xin/The Epoch Times)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1804159"/></a>
FAIR PAY: City Comptroller William C. Thompson joined home childcare providers at City Hall on Wednesday to call for state-mandated pay raises.  (Li Xin/The Epoch Times)
NEW YORK—Dozens of home-based childcare providers were joined by NYC Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. and United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten in front of the City Hall on Wednesday to protest unpaid state-mandated raises.

The City’s refusal to pay wage increases based on the new market rate mandated by the state in October of 2007, as well as the enhanced rate for those who qualify by getting 10 hours of special training is in violation of federal law.

The 17-month long delay in new wage allocations is jeopardizing the city’s portion of the $46 million in federal economic stimulus funds for childcare allocated to New York State. The state has also threatened to stop federal and state reimbursement for subsidized day care, approximated at $40 million per month, if the city does not comply by March when the next payment is due.

The protest follows Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposal last week to use government funds to retrain unemployed investment bankers, traders and other laid-off Wall Street workers, as well as to provide seed capital and office space for new business that unemployed bankers might create. The plan would cost $15 million in city funds combined with $30 million in federal economic stimulus money.

“It is time for the city to stop refusing to fulfill its legal obligation to pay home child care providers the proper wages and start putting the needs of children and families first,” said Thompson.

“Providers are hurting in this tough economy just like the rest of us, and if they cannot afford to continue caring for kids of working families, then the parents in those families will be hard pressed for solutions and more people will be at risk of losing their jobs,” he continued.

“The city figured out a way to use stimulus money to help Wall Street, but it isn’t willing to do the same for childcare providers. It simply defies common sense for the city to claim that it can do this for Wall Street but not for the poorest New Yorkers,” said Weingarten, who heads the 200,000-member union representing providers and public school educators in New York City.

The providers, who care for thousands of children in subsidized home settings, are among the lowest-paid workers in the city, with the average annual income of approximately $19,610. The federal poverty line for a family of four in New York City in 2008 was $26,138. The average group family daycare provider could earn an extra $100 a week under the new market rate.

New York City providers are members of the United Federation of Teachers. The union officials have worked with providers to fill out forms requesting the increased rates. Several hundred providers have applied for the new rate between November and February of last year, but have not received any response from the city. Hundreds of providers have previously protested outside the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) headquarters on September 24, but the ACS officials have continuously declined to meet with them.