And in many cases, we are still talking about dual income households. But non-traditional ones. So people who are divorced, who were never married, people who live with their own parents, who get child support or money from their child/ren's father who also works a lower income job.
We usually are not talking about someone who is a single parent with four kids, an absent parent, and a mortgage. So the easy dismissal of well, get a husband really just stings.
Exactly. There are plenty of situations with one adult and children and no child support coming in for whatever reason (never involved, incarcerated, walked out, passed away) and this attitude that it just takes two incomes when two simply aren't possible is insulting.
I felt ridiculously lucky that I'm able to swing childcare expenses on my salary w/o any assistance from her dad. I'm a single parent, w a single salary who can swing it. It's not easy and I'm grateful everyday that I have only ONE kid ...
The more than must be a typo. The federal guidelines are not even close to 48K for a family of 4.
This article is quite confusing and poorly written because I can't understand the numbers nor their comparisons.
Now, I have no clue if this is an expensive County in CO but if the average daycare provider is making 42k a year, that isn't too bad IMO.
I live in an expensive area with high housing and lower wages that is not relative to the housing and inflation rates.
I am also a lawyer, though many of my clients insist I am not : wink wink: I make barely over that amount : ( I know I work in public service and don't expect to be rolling in money but that isn't too bad of a salary for daycare. I can assure our daycare workers making nothing close to that though they should and deserve.
The $42k is for a center *leader*, not a caregiver. The caregivers are making $13.70 an hour, or around $28k.
My sister is a single mom, college educated day-care/preschool worker. She is working On a Behavior specialist certificate and will still make less than $15/hour after she has it.
She lived with my parents after she left her baby-daddy because there was absolutely no way she could afford to live on her own even while working full time. It's heartbreaking. I have no interest in children and she is so passionate about every child that comes through their doors and makes nothing. It is a thankless career.
My mom is an early-childhood specialist and is fairly close to having a Doctorate and she makes less than $50k a year. She has been doing this for more than 25 years and hasn't had a raise in quite awhile. She is the specialist in the area and is constantly in classes to learn more. Why we don't reward that commitment to our youth just makes me angry.
Both of them work in CO. Just had to throw my two cents in.
I apologize to those who I offended. I live in a HCOL area, and yes, had a more privileged upbringing than most, but both my parents and my ILs each have one of their kids and their SOs living with them still due to the HCOL. My comments were not from a place of this is how it should be, but that this is how it is for everyone that I know regardless of profession (living with parents, working multiple jobs, etc), but I definitely understand everyone's point that even having the support from family to have the option to live with someone or work multiple jobs and have daycare help is a huge privilege, as is having two incomes. I agree that earning potentials in general should allow people to support their families, but my point was that I haven't seen that much where I am. Even my H, working for a huge bank, was making $12 as a teller at a bank until he was promoted a few years ago, and he's been there for 10 years. I was coming from that point of view, like isn't it that way everywhere, but after reading everyone's comments I understand that even if it is, that's not okay. I truly didn't mean to imply that ECE are undeserving of more or that ECE is not a valid career path, and I certainly didn't mean to shame single parents or make them feel bad. I realize that I look like an asshole here, but I'm still glad that I said something because it made me see another side of this that I wouldn't have thought of.
If ECE were a predominantly male-dominated field, I believe workers would be paid a salary sufficient to support a family.
I feel the same about nursing.
Nurses don't make enough to support a family? Or are you referring to certain types of nurses?
I would guess she's talking about home health nurses, nurses in assisted living, school nurses, basically nurses not ina hospital setting or who have less than a bachelor's and/or RN. RNs in an inpatient hospital setting generally make a living wage, in my experience. Although recent research shows that male nurses, a small minority, still make more than comparable female nurses. We invented this profession and they still get paid more!
If ECE were a predominantly male-dominated field, I believe workers would be paid a salary sufficient to support a family.
I feel the same about nursing.
Nurses don't make enough to support a family? Or are you referring to certain types of nurses?
It obviously depends on the state and presence of a union, but in ND (no union) nurses (RNs with a BSN) at the largest hospital start at $23 with a very high COL for area, even higher in the western part of the state. It's ridiculous.
In MN, union, most hospitals, regardless of COL, start at 28-30 for a brand new BSN nurse with no experience.
If ECE were a predominantly male-dominated field, I believe workers would be paid a salary sufficient to support a family.
I feel the same about nursing.
Bingo.
Don't hold your breath waiting for the male wing of the progressive movement to get on board with changing anything about this either.
I think daycare is terribly expensive, daycare workers are not adequately paid, and I'd like to see the government step in with greater subsidies to help increase wages.
author="juliej"]The $42k is for a center *leader*, not a caregiver. The caregivers are making $13.70 an hour, or around $28k.[/quote]My sister is a single mom, college educated day-care/preschool worker. She is working On a Behavior specialist certificate and will still make less than $15/hour after she has it.
She lived with my parents after she left her baby-daddy because there was absolutely no way she could afford to live on her own even while working full time. It's heartbreaking. I have no interest in children and she is so passionate about every child that comes through their doors and makes nothing. It is a thankless career.
My mom is an early-childhood specialist and is fairly close to having a Doctorate and she makes less than $50k a year. She has been doing this for more than 25 years and hasn't had a raise in quite awhile. She is the specialist in the area and is constantly in classes to learn more. Why we don't reward that commitment to our youth just makes me angry.
Both of them work in CO. Just had to throw my two cents in. [/quote]
Don't get me ring I agree! I thought the 42k was for the worker and was like...meh..it is low but not that low compared to other jobs which is why I mentioned my line of work but never mind I didn't realize it was only around 28k.
ok, I totally get the point of the article about wages vs. costs, but I would assume that almost $14/hour would be a pretty good wage? It isn't a major city/town, but includes loveland and ft collins. What is the federal poverty level if the SSI is $48K MORE?? I guess I'd really like to know what that includes...
Those daycare prices seem really high. I'm paying $255/week in houston for one of the higher end schools. my friend are paying closer to $200 for infants.
I'm in the north Houston suburbs. Our daycare was $250 for infants when DS started almost 4 years ago, now it's $290. I pay $280 for DD in the toddler room. Which is still cheaper than my job's daycare that is over $1300 a month and has no sibling discounts.
I remember someone here told me that BH wasn't unreasonably expensive, it just paid their teachers more. I've since found out that's not true. I remember the comment because it stung. I'm not cheap I want daycare workers to make a living wage, I have a good income, but $2500 a month is a huge hit to the budget.
BH does pay more than other day cares here, the starting pay is commiserate with the starting pay at the grocery store. The others just pay so low that even paying more is still not a living wage.