Worth More Rally for Decent Work in Child Care

Child care workers need decent work NOW! A contingent from Justice for Workers will join child care workers, parents and supporters for a rally at Queen's Park. Together, we'll send a strong message to the provincial government: We need action on decent work in child care. That includes fair wages, paid sick days and paid programming time.

A child care staffing shortage, driven by low wages and poor working conditions, is threatening the accessibility of child care for families. Across Ontario, child care centres are closing rooms and limiting enrolment because they cannot retain staff in their programs.

Ontario’s current approach to the implementation of the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care plan will not solve this growing crisis. The $18 per hour wage floor and $1 annual increase are far too low and leave out too many workers. Early Childhood Educators and child care workers are worth more! We need a provincial child care workforce strategy now.

For child care to be high-quality and accessible, workers need:

• A real salary scale starting at $25 per hour for all child care workers and $30 per hour for Registered Early Childhood Educators (RECEs);
• Benefits and pensions;
• Paid sick days;
• Professional development time; and
• Paid programming time.

A poster for the event that you can share in your community is available he re.

This rally is co-hosted by the Association of Early Childhood Educators of Ontario and Ontario Coalition for Better Childcare. It is part of a national day of action on November 30. For more information, visit childcareontario.org/worth_more.