Let’s Use Childcare Assistance to Lift the Workers Out of Poverty Too

Jacob Vigil

Posted on Nov. 28, 2024

New Mexico has made some significant and historic investments in early childhood – and there is exciting new evidence that those investments are making a huge difference for improved child well-being. In fact, our state’s Childcare Assistance program is very likely one of the factors for why child poverty is so vastly improved in a measurement recently released by the Census Bureau.

When the Census only measures parental income, New Mexico’s child poverty level is distressingly high – 27%, or the worst in the nation. But when anti-poverty programs like SNAP, housing assistance, and tax credits are taken into account, our child poverty rate plummets to less than 9% – or even lower than the national average. One of the factors that is measured in this other poverty rate is out-of-pocket expenses for child care. While child care can cost more than college tuition in much of the country, New Mexico’s Childcare Assistance (CA) program offers co-pay free child care for nearly all New Mexico families.

This upcoming legislative session, lawmakers have the opportunity – and the means – to improve early care and education wages and we hope they do.

While it’s great to know that the expansion of universal child care has such a dramatic effect on lowering poverty in New Mexico for the children and families who receive the program, there is one significant way in which the CA program falls short: wages for child care and other early care and education (ECE) workers remain unacceptably low. If we can use our CA program to lift kids and families out of poverty, why don’t we use it to lift the people who provide that care out of poverty as well?

In October, the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment released its annual Early Childhood Workforce Index. The data on New Mexico showed that In 2022, the median wage for the ECE workforce was $12.03. Since the living wage in New Mexico for a single adult was $15.11, ECE workers faced a wage gap of 20% or $3.08 per hour.

As with any ECE program, quality matters – and higher wages deliver greater quality. One measure of quality in ECE is longevity. Research has established a strong link between low pay and teacher turnover. A study by the Minneapolis Federal Reserve found that turnover is higher in child care centers where wages are lower. Turnover disrupts child-teacher relationships, which are crucial to children’s developmental outcomes.

Since 2019, New Mexico has established a dedicated Early Childhood Education and Care Department, an Early Childhood Trust Fund, and voters approved the tapping of the state’s Land Grant Permanent Fund for ECE programs. But until the workers who deliver the essential care and support the healthy development and learning of our youngest children are paid a living wage, the promise of these accomplishments will remain unfulfilled.

A well-paid and professional workforce caring for and educating our youngest kids is the key to ensuring our investments pay off and that New Mexico’s children have a bright future. Affordable child care has not only helped lift families out of poverty, but it can provide a pathway of dignified work and compensation for a workforce that is largely women of color. The ECE sector provides fulfilling, vital jobs that require great skill and education at a time when our state is looking to diversify its economy and workforce.

Better wages for ECE providers, combined with other policies that build the stability and dignity of New Mexico workers, build wealth, and improve equity – such as Baby Bonds, targeted guaranteed income programs, and paid family and medical leave – are all evidence-based solutions that ensure New Mexico children can thrive.

This upcoming legislative session, lawmakers have the opportunity – and the means – to improve early care and education wages and we hope they do. Because our children deserve it – as do the professionals who care for them in their most formative years.

Jacob Vigil, MSW, is a Deputy Policy Director at New Mexico Voices for Children.