Child care center workers and owners alike have been coming together with SEIU since 1998 to improve children’s early learning. We've been working to improve our centers and increase investment in an early care and education system that works for children, families and early learning professionals.

Child care centers are sponsored, owned and operated by a wide variety of public, for-profit, and non-profit organizations. While some are owned by multi-national corporations, the vast majority are smaller organizations.

The majority of the funding for child care centers comes from parents, and while some centers receive government subsidies to care for low-income children, it is rarely enough to cover the cost of quality child care. That leaves centers with small operating margins to provide staff training, benefits, or higher wages that attract and retain skilled, experienced staff.

Despite that lack of support, thousands of child care teachers each year take part in education and training, with many earning higher degrees, and continue to give children the benefit of their knowledge and experience.

Centers, like family child care providers, are increasingly strained in the current recession. Lower enrollment—whether from parental unemployment or reduced wages—means centers’ already thin margins are gone. Meanwhile young children are missing out on important pre-school learning. And child care centers closed in a recession are slower to restart as the economy recovers, straining parents who are trying to recover their family’s financial health.

Providing quality child care requires a stable, qualified, well-compensated early childhood workforce. Center workers and the SEIU are committed to working together to build the strength we need to accomplish our goals.