Child care workers still underpaid as national group turns 100

Early childhood educators earn a median wage of $15.41 an hour, even as families pay an average of $13,128 a year for child care. The gap is at the center of a milestone year for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), which marks its 100th anniversary in 2026.

“Families can’t afford to pay more, educators can’t afford to earn less,” said NAEYC CEO Michelle Kang. “Our entire nation suffers as parents can’t find or afford the high-quality care they need, pulling themselves out of the workforce in the process.”

In Minnesota, the median wage for child care workers was $16.43 an hour in 2025, one of the lowest for jobs requiring a high school diploma, according to a January 2026 state report to the Legislature. 

The state has tried to close that gap. In 2023, the Legislature created the Great Start Compensation Support Payment program to raise early childhood workers’ pay and benefits, funding it with $316 million for 2024-25 and $260 million for 2026-27. Lawmakers said they hoped the payments would attract and retain workers and ease the statewide child care shortage. At the Legislature’s direction, the state is also developing recommendations for a statewide wage scale and benefits framework for the early childhood workforce. 

Founded in 1926 as the National Association for Nursery Education, NAEYC began with a simple belief: young children deserve better, and the people who care for them deserve a voice. Today it is the nation’s largest early childhood education association, with tens of thousands of members and 50 affiliates. More than 5,800 NAEYC-accredited early learning programs serve over half a million children, and nearly 180 accredited higher education programs train the next generation of early childhood educators.

Over the past century, the organization has built much of the field’s foundation. It published the first professional standards in 1929, helped develop the Child Development Associate credential in the 1970s and launched the first voluntary national accreditation system in 1985. In 1987, it established Developmentally Appropriate Practice guidelines to promote each child’s development and learning, followed two years later by the field’s first code of ethics.

More recently, NAEYC convened Power to the Profession from 2017 to 2020, a national collaboration of 15 organizations and more than 11,000 educators. The effort produced the “Unifying Framework,” which sets shared career pathways, qualifications and compensation recommendations for the early childhood workforce.

Research shows high-quality early childhood education changes the trajectories of children, families and communities. But the educators who provide it remain undervalued and under-supported, Kang said.

“Our work has never been more urgent,” she said. “We need systems that truly value children and the people who care for and educate them. Early childhood educators are the workforce behind the workforce: skilled, dedicated professionals whose impact reaches children, families, businesses and communities nationwide. By recognizing these educators’ expertise, investing in their compensation and elevating their contributions, we invest in our collective future.”

To mark the centennial, NAEYC launched A Year of Reflections, a storytelling initiative inviting educators, families and advocates to share the moments and mentors that shaped their work in early childhood education. Monthly themes throughout 2026 range from beginnings to workforce advocacy to a vision for the future, and the stories will help shape the organization’s next chapter. More information is available at naeyc.org/centennial.

MSR staff contributed to this report.

This article appeared first in Black Press USA. For the original, visit https://blackpressusa.com/early-childhood-nonprofit-celebrates-a-century-of-success/.