Texas Early Childhood Workforce Compensation Study

One of the Council's four priority areas is Workforce and Professional Development.  In order to support the Council's goal to create a highly qualified and prepared workforce, the Subcommittee will complete a research study on the compensation and retention of early childhood professionals in Texas.  This compensation study will provide objective evidence about compensation and retention of early childhood workers in Texas.  The knowledge learned through this compensation study will also support the development of a major initiative of the Council, the Texas Early Childhood Professional Development System (TECPDS).

This compensation study will be a survey of child care workers from across Texas.  The Council will work with the Child and Family Research Institute at the School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin to research, develop, and implement the survey.  View a webpage from CFRI devoted to the compensation study. The Child and Family Research Institute has multiple years of experience working on child care-related research.  Each year, the Institute conducts the child care market rate survey for the Texas Workforce Commission and the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources, interviewing approximately 3,000 with center-based and home-based providers.

The purpose of the compensation study is to gather accurate information about the wages of child care workers, as well as the retention of these workers.  The survey will gather compensation and retention data from home-based providers, center directors, and center workers.  To gather a complete picture of the compensation of all child care workers, the final report may also include information about the compensation of public school pre-k teachers and Head Start teachers.

The Institute will work with the Council to accomplish five objectives over the course of this project.  First, the Institute will research and develop a survey to be conducted with child care workers in Texas.  Second, the team will complete a literature review on child care compensation and retention to guide the analysis of the survey data.  Third, the Institute will conduct the survey among child care professionals, achieving the required number of respondents in each group (home-based providers, center directors and workers, and others).  Then, the team will analyze the survey data.  Finally, the Institute will produce a final report for the project including the research methodology, analysis, and final results of the compensation study.  The Council hopes to use this information to make recommendations regarding a baseline early care and education compensation plan for the state.

The research team will collect data from home-based providers and center-based directors and workers on several topics to achieve the objective of the compensation study: to gain accurate information about the compensation and retention of child care workers.  Data will be collected on: compensation (ex. average income, vacation time, and benefits); retention (ex. total number of years in early childhood education, number of years in the current position and with the current employer, and plans to stay in current position); demographics (age, gender, race, ECE sector, Texas region, and education); and, career (plans for more formal education and to stay in the field).

Connect with the Council to keep up-to-date with developments in this exciting project.  The projected delivery date for the final report is February 2013.  We will keep you updated on the status of the project.  Learn more about the Council's initiatives in Workforce and Professional Development.