Preschool Teachers Fall Into an O.C. Pay Gap

Child-care centers in Orange County are finding it more difficult to attract and keep qualified preschool teachers as salaries continue to hover near the minimum wage and benefits are largely non-existent, according to industry specialists.

“Wages and benefits are the sleeper issues that will put the brakes on day care,” said Betsy Mathis, a child-care consultant and former head of Irvine’s municipal child-care committee. “The joke is that it is better to take a job at McDonald’s. It is a tremendous problem.”

According to the state’s Employment Development Department, there were 3,799 day-care workers and preschool teachers in the county in 1987. Pay for day-care teachers and workers ranges from $5 to $12 per hour, and many teachers with bachelor degrees in early childhood development are forced to work for $6 to $8 per hour, which is $12,480 to $16,640 per year.

“The shortage has become really critical the last two or three years,” said Nancy Claxton, who runs the child development program of the county’s Department of Education. “It used to be when I had a teacher opening, I might get 50 to 60 applications. Now I might get five applicants.”

Officials said part of the problem is the strong county economy and low unemployment rate. They said many choose not to enter the field because they know that pay is low and few positions offer benefit packages found elsewhere.

Last year, the average full-time weekly pay of child-care workers nationally was $187, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics--less than $4.68 an hour. For preschool teachers and kindergarten teachers it was $321 (about $8 an hour), while elementary-school teachers made $481 (about $12 an hour) and high-school teachers made $521 (about $13 an hour).

Benefits, such as Social Security and work breaks, rarely go beyond what is required by law. Health coverage is rare.

Subsidizing Profession Women

Experts said child-care workers are subsidizing other professional women. “What it really boils down to is, one group of women is virtually forced to exploit another group of women,” Claxton said.

“We have young people who have prepared to work with young children and have 12 units (of college courses) to a bachelor’s (degree) who are leaving the field because they cannot afford to stay.”

For example, Mary Flaczinski, a teacher at the Irvine Child Development Center, said she especially likes to deal with infants and toddlers. But now she and her husband have decided that she needs a job that provides medical coverage for their family.

“I’ll probably look for a job,” she said, “at a grocery store or a bank. . . . It is very upsetting to leave because of economic reasons.”

Even the UC Irvine child-care program--which can afford to pay lead teachers $1,600 per month, a very high salary in the field, and offers unmatched benefits--has had teachers leave for better-paying clerical jobs.

42% U.S. Turnover Rate

According to the National Assn. for the Education of Young Children, the turnover rate for child-care workers is 42%.

Dan Wollent, a spokesman for Kinder-Care--the nation’s largest profit-making day-care chain, which operates 18 centers in the county--said the turnover rate in day care is comparable to the rate in the fast-food industry.

“We can’t pay much because we are trying to offer the parent the lowest prices,” Wollent said.

In addition, the shortage of qualified teachers has led to competition among child-care centers. This market mechanism plays havoc with the lives of young children, who thrive on stability, said Karen Bocard, head of child care at UC Irvine.

“Children must bond with their care-giver,” she said. “If their care-giver changes one, two or three times in a year, then the child is not able to bond and is not able to feel secure in the environment.”

Unless salaries improve, there is the fear that fewer and fewer people will enter the child-care profession or make a long-term commitment, said Mathis, the former chief of Irvine’s day-care panel.

Warmth ‘Is a Gift’

She emphasized that the quality of a day-care program is directly linked with the quality of its staff: “There is an amorphous quality when you walk into a center. You can feel the staff that relates to the kids. It’s a gift . . . the warmth of how they speak or move the groups of children around.”

The best preschools offer children, especially 3- and 4-year-olds, a continual kaleidoscope of experiences difficult for parents to match at home. Child-care professionals continue to struggle against the idea that anyone can provide effective day care and that staff members are merely baby-sitters.

“It is a very difficult job,” said Roberta Berns, head of the human development department at Saddleback College, “because it requires knowledge of child development, and children of the same age are not necessarily at the same point of development. . . . You have to keep changing your style of interaction.”

Orange County Assn. for the Education of Young Children surveyed all child-care centers in the county in 1988 and found that 41% of teachers and directors have bachelor degrees. Also, 22% had graduate degrees or had done graduate work. Almost 70% had at least one year of college.

Next-Best Paying

After the college-based programs, the day-care centers in the county offering the best salary and benefit packages are those run by the county’s Department of Education and the Garden Grove Unified and Fullerton Unified school districts.

Many of their teachers are members of the California Teachers Assn., which represents teachers in labor negotiations. “The pay is not quite equal to elementary teacher pay, but the benefits are equal,” said Claxton, the director of the county’s Department of Education child development program.

A national Louis Harris poll taken in April found that 73% of Americans were willing to increase their taxes to pay for child care. Nine of 10 surveyed were concerned about day-care staff being underpaid.

At the federal level, President Bush has proposed a child-care tax credit of up to $1,000 per year for low-income parents, while Democrats in Congress have countered with the Act for Better Child Care, the so-called “ABC Bill” that would provide money for salaries and training of day-care teachers and urge states to set standards for child-care centers. (California already has standards for child-care centers.)

Demand in County to Climb

In Orange County, officials said the demand for child care is certain to increase.

According to county officials, the number of children in the county is expected to increase by 11% in the next decade. In 1984, nearly half the children under 5 years old in the county had working mothers, according to the Orange County Commission on the Status of Women.

“Everyone is building facilities,” said Bocard, UCI’s head of child care. “But where is the staff going to come from?”

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