Home Child-Care Providers Rally for Boost in Salaries; State Approved
By DAVID SIMS
More than 200 home-based child-care providers rallied outside the headquarters of the Administration for Children's Services Sept. 24, demanding a market-rate salary increase that was approved by the state in 2007.

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow 'WE DESERVE THE MARKET RATE': Tammie Miller, the United Federation of Teachers chair for child-care providers, tells crowd outside the Administration for Children's Services offices, 'How can providers offer quality programs without money to buy supplies, books and materials needed for learning?'

"All we're asking is for what you already have earned," United Federation of Teachers Vice President Michael Mulgrew told the crowd. "It took a two-year campaign to establish an economic and political voice for home child-care providers, and we're here today to make sure that voice is heard."

Unionized But Still Underpaid

The UFT, along with the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, were given the right to unionize home day-care providers a year ago by then-Governor Eliot Spitzer, with more than 28,000 now belonging to the UFT. Their average annual wage is $19,610, a figure that hovers around the poverty line.

Last October, negotiations with the Office of Children and Family Services led to new market rates for providers being established, which could boost wages by $100 a week. According to the UFT, several hundred providers have filled out forms requesting these new rates, but the ACS has not upped their salaries, saying the city cannot afford it.

"When you consider the enormous responsibility we have of taking care of children ... shouldn't we be getting the market rate?" asked Tammie Miller, chairwoman of the UFT Childcare Providers. "How can providers offer quality programs without money to buy supplies, books and materials needed for learning?"

City Councilman Bill de Blasio, Chairman of the General Welfare Committee, who has lobbied on behalf of the providers in the past, declared, "This is mandatory ... ACS does not have a choice. They are breaking the rules. Let's be clear ... ACS has your money. It's that simple ... if anyone says to you, 'we're in a fiscal crisis,' the answer is clear to me. [Providers are] in a fiscal crisis all the time."

'Never Gotten a Raise'

Workers at the rally concurred with the sentiment. "I've been a child-care provider for six years. I don't think I've ever gotten a raise," said Gladys Jones, a provider from Staten Island. "We have to pay our assistants' salaries, pay for liability insurance, learning materials and day-care supplies, even though most providers earn less than the minimum wage."

"We take care of kids ... we do 10, 12 hours a day," said Stella Okonula, a provider in Queens. "Parents depend on us. The city depends on us. But the subsidy rates are so low that providers can barely support their own families." Ms. Okonula then directed her speech to the head of ACS. "We need Commissioner [John B.] Mattingly to put himself in our shoes!" she told the cheering crowd.

A statement by Mr. Mattingly said that OCFS had reallocated $26.8 million from the Child Care Block Grant to the City, and had called for rate increases for child-care providers, but that it had been a one-time payment that would not cover ACS's long-term costs. "Children's Services projects the annual cost of increasing affected rates for all applicable providers to be $53.4 million per year into the indefinite future, with no further state funding committed," he said.

"The City faces two extremely difficult choices: either finding more than $20 million in City Tax Levy this year in a City budget already experiencing shortfalls — along with more than $50 million next year — or eliminating subsidized child care for many hundreds of low-income, working families — again into the indefinite future," Mr. Mattingly continued. "In light of the financial challenges of recent days, we are weighing how best to meet the needs of families and children in care."