It’s not a question that early child-care (ECE) education workers play a vital role in the development of children and shaping future generations.
The question is why doesn’t the province provide them with a wage that recognizes their value?
The wage rate for this profession is set by the province for licensed early year centres. Right now, the range is $12.48 to $17.56 an hour with the average wage sitting at $15.60 an hour.
To put this in perspective, the low end of the range is slightly higher than the province’s $11.55 an hour minimum wage.
The average wage of $15.60 an hour is a far cry from the province’s overall average wage for December of $23.15 as well as the median wage of $20 an hour, according to Statistics Canada.
The median wage tells us that half of the Island’s working population, roughly 77,000 people, make below that amount, including early child-care workers.
What the numbers don’t tell us is how important this profession is to the Island. As already mentioned, they have a vital role in developing the next generation of students and working professionals.
But their value goes beyond that. While children are with early child-care workers, their parents are at work, making a living and contributing to the economy.
Not surprisingly, the low wages are forcing some early child-care workers to reconsider the job they love in order to better provide for their own families.
When you know the most you can make is $17.56 an hour, who can blame them? It’s tough to give up a career that is meaningful, but at the end of the day, everyone has to make a living. We should also be concerned about the message being sent to students choosing a profession. Who could blame them from following another, higher paying path?
It’s the same argument as in any profession. If you want to retain valuable employees and mitigate turnover, pay them a wage that recognizes the cost of living but also a wage that recognizes their value.
The industry experts have weighed in with solutions.
The Association des Centres de la Petite Enfance Francophones de l’Île-du-Prince-Édouard (ACPEFIPE) is recommending that wages increase by $7 an hour to match educational assistants while the Early Childhood Development Association of P.E.I. wants government grants to private, non-designated childcare centres to have the condition that they pay employees within the province’s mandates wage scale in line with designated centres.
Budget day is coming up, and the ball is in the province’s court.
Both recommendations add up to recognizing the value of the profession and its employees.
Is that too much to ask, especially since our children’s future is at stake?
