With all of the standing, walking, bending, stooping and lifting their work requires, child care providers have one tough job. Yet, the average provider earns a below-poverty-rate income (for a family of four) of just $18,820 a year.

These dedicated professionals deserve better. That’s why Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) have introduced “The Quality Child Care for America Act.” The legislation would provide an annual $200 million to increase providers’ earnings, and help with their health insurance coverage, retirement benefits, paid sick leave and professional training.

AFSCME, which represents more than 300,000 child care providers and early childhood educators – including nearly 60,000 who joined the union just this past year – will work to pass this bill.

Watch this video to hear AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee announce his support of The Quality Child Care for America Act. To read more about the bill, click here. For more about child care providers’ jobs, see this U.S. Department of Labor report.

As the saying goes, respect is earned, never given. New York’s child care providers know it better than anyone given their long fight to gain recognition for the critical work they perform.

Earning an average $19,000 a year and having little or no benefits, providers just took a momentous step forward as Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) signed an executive order granting them the freedom join a union and bargain for a better future (for more on their win, read this article from The New York Times.)

Not ones to rest on their laurels, their union, the Voice of Organized Independent Childcare Educators (CSEA/VOICE), has already filed with a solid majority of signed providers for recognition from the New York State Employment Relations Board.

Providers in New York have added their voice to that of the more than 220,000 family child care providers, day care center workers, Head Start teachers and early childhood employees who have joined AFSCME across the country to secure greater investment in our children.

Six years is a long time to wait, especially when the care of our kids is at stake.

For the past six years, the Bush administration and the Republican-led Congress has consistently frozen federal funding for child care services despite yearly increases in the number of families needing these services. The results have been disastrous, according to a report by the National Women’s Law Center (PDF).

Inadequate funding has resulted in reduced child care availability and dramatic cost increases for low-income families. In addition, child care providers are sometimes forced to refuse care for children receiving subsidies because they cannot afford to accept the low reimbursement rates. This limits the child care choices for parents or even cuts off access to good care completely. Those providers who do accept the lower, subsidized rates are faced with cutting corners. They may pay lower salaries and offer leaner benefits to their staff, thus precluding the child care providers from attracting and retaining highly qualified employees.

AFSCME, with our child care affiliates, is the union for tens of thousands of child care providers across the country. We are demanding that Congress increase child care funding. Specifically, we are asking for a $720 million increase for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG).

This is not an issue just for child care providers. It’s for all of us who believe in fair wages for workers and quality care for kids. Everyone can take part in our campaign at:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/fund_child_care

This additional funding will make up for ground that was lost due to inadequate funding in recent years, and will provide child care help to at least a portion of the 150,000 children who have lost assistance since 2000.

It’s the least we can do for our kids.