[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 395 Introduced in House (IH)]








109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. CON. RES. 395

  Supporting the goals and ideas of a National Child Care Worthy Wage 
                                  Day.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 27, 2006

     Mrs. McCarthy (for herself, Mr. Platts, Mr. George Miller of 
   California, Ms. DeLauro, Mr. Towns, Mr. Wexler, Ms. Kilpatrick of 
   Michigan, Mr. Kennedy of Rhode Island, Mr. Lewis of Georgia, Mr. 
   Sanders, Mrs. Maloney, Mr. Hinojosa, Ms. Woolsey, Mr. Owens, Mr. 
   Kildee, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Mr. Farr, Mr. Moore of Kansas, Ms. 
 Eshoo, Mr. Grijalva, and Ms. Lee) submitted the following concurrent 
 resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the 
                               Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
  Supporting the goals and ideas of a National Child Care Worthy Wage 
                                  Day.

Whereas approximately 13 million children are in non-parental care during part 
        or all of the day while their parents work;
Whereas the early care and education industry employs more than 2 million 
        workers;
Whereas these workers indirectly add $580 billion to the economy by enabling 
        millions of parents to perform their own jobs;
Whereas the average salary of early care and education workers is $18,060 per 
        year, and only one third have health insurance and even fewer have a 
        pension plan;
Whereas the quality of early care and education programs is directly linked to 
        the quality of early childhood educators and such low salaries make it 
        difficult to attract high quality early childhood educators;
Whereas the turnover rate of early childhood program staff is roughly 30 percent 
        per year because of low wages and lack of benefits, making it difficult 
        to retain high quality educators who have the consistent, caring 
        relationships with young children that are important to children's 
        development;
Whereas, the compensation of early childhood program staff must be commensurate 
        with the importance of the job of helping our Nation's young children 
        develop their social, emotional, physical and intellectual skills and be 
        ready for school;
Whereas providing adequate compensation to early childhood program staff should 
        not be achieved by further burdening parents with higher fees, and 
        therefore requires additional public as well as private resources so 
        that quality care and education are accessible to all families; and
Whereas the Center for the Child Care Workforce, a project of the American 
        Federation of Teachers Educational Foundation and other early childhood 
        organizations, recognized May 1st as National Child Care Worthy Wage 
        Day: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),  
That Congress supports the goals and ideas of National Child Care 
Worthy Wage Day, and urges public officials and the general public to 
honor early childhood care and education staff and programs in their 
communities, and to work together to resolve the early childhood care 
and education staff compensation crisis.
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