B.C. early childhood educators to get wage top-up

The B.C. government is hoping to keep and recruit more early childhood educators (ECE) with changes to wages and bonuses.

The province has announced that, starting in the new year, ECEs will receive a $2 an-hour raise, based on how many hours they work in December. This is on top of a previously announced raise of $4 per hour.

In addition to the hourly top-up, ECEs with advanced skills will also be eligible to apply for an additional $2,000 per year. This is for those educators “who hold an infant toddler educator or special needs educator certification through the ECE Registry.”

Those accredited with both specialized certificates will be eligible for an additional $3,000 per year.

“We know this recognition is well deserved and hope that it encourages ECEs who have been thinking about upgrading their credentials to know that it’s worth it, for their own careers and for the families that they serve,” said Minister of State for Child Care Grace Lore Monday.

“We’re also providing ECEs with additional support to encourage them to expand their skills in this important and rewarding profession. We know that in order to meet families’ needs to access quality and inclusive child care, we need more ECEs with specialized training, and we need to compensate and recognize those specialized skills and that additional education that educators bring to their work.”

Applications for the bonuses will be available on the Early Childhood Educators of BC website starting in December.

The province says the increases to hourly wages will bring the median pay for ECEs to about $28.

However, the changes are only for those working at licenced facilities.

“These hourly top-ups are one way we’re recognizing the important work of early childhood educators, while we continue to develop and refine a wage grid for the sector. In fact, we will begin testing the first iteration of a new wage grid at select child-care centres later this fall,” Lore explained.

“We know that educators working in the child-care sector aren’t immune to global inflation, to rising interest rates, to increased costs of living, and that they need that support and recognition now.”

Child care spaces and ECEs

According to the minister, the latest moves make up part of the path to eliminating shortages and increasing child-care spaces.

“There is no child care without ECEs. We talk about spaces, but we’re actually talking about educators — the people who do this work,” she said.

The wage announcements and changes come after the B.C. government launched an ECE recruitment and retention strategy in 2018.

The province has been criticized for holding, not spending, hundreds of millions in federal money to get to universal, $ 10-a-day daycare, and for not equitably reducing costs for parents.

A recent report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives suggests that B.C. could be doing a lot better at lowering child-care fees.

Lore says this was the plan for the first two years, to carry the money forward, as the system builds up.

Along with the wage increases, Lore adds the province will “continue focusing on training, recruitment, and retaining” ECEs, with things like support funds, increasing spaces in post-secondary institutions, and investments in other programs.