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Minimum Wage and Early Care and Education: Lessons Learned and Paths Forward
Wednesday, June 16, 2021, 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM EDT
Category: National Training or Event

Register Here!

Alliance for Early Success is convening a policy conversation on minimum wage in early care and education, and are excited to announce the webinar will be on June 16.

Campaigns to raise the minimum wage have gained momentum in states over recent years. Since 2014, 28 states and DC have changed their minimum wage laws, with the latest coming in the form of a ballot initiative in Florida just this past November. The federal minimum wage is again a topic of debate in 2021. Increasing the minimum wage could negatively impact early childhood education (ECE) programs, since most providers struggle to raise wages without charging families more or stretching their budget even thinner, at the expense of their programs’ viability and quality.

While this issue isn’t new to the field, the search for solutions comes at a time when, after living under a pandemic for more than a year, providers and educators are clamoring for transformative change. The unprecedented financial resources from the federal relief packages could also present an opportunity for progress.

Featuring New Mexico’s recent work on this issue, this webinar will elevate lessons we’ve learned so far about what policies and actions states can take to help ECE providers meet higher minimum wage standards.

We’ll hear from providers who have been managing to operate with these new laws, while state advocates, policy leaders, and national experts will discuss key pieces of a comprehensive response: an inclusive campaign for higher wages, access to reliable workforce and cost data, and identifying new revenue streams dedicated to workforce compensation.

Panelists will include:

• Claire Dudley Chavez, Division Director of Policy, Research, and Quality Initiatives at the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department
• Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky, New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department
• Matthew Henderson, Executive Director at the OLÉ Education Fund
• Daisy Kiri, Director of the Bumblebee Learning Center
• Caitlin McLean, Senior Research Specialist at the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment
• Dominique Sanders, Field Director at Main Street Alliance
• Meghan Tavormina, Executive Director at the Learning Path Preschool and President of the New Jersey Association for the Education of Young Children
• Michael Weinberg, Thornburg Foundation


Contact: Alliance for Early Success | www.earlysuccess.org