Increase DoD Childcare Staff Pay 'as Quickly as Possible,' Senators Tell Austin
U.S.
Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks with Scott Hardiman, Air Force Nuclear Weapons
Center Director for Nuclear Command, Control (NC3) and Communications
Integration and Air Force program executive officer for NC3, during a visit to
Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., August 3, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by Todd
Maki)
Posted: September 16, 2024 --- Military.com | By Rebecca
Kheel
Published September
16, 2024, at 8:00am ET
Amid ongoing staffing shortages at Department of Defense (DoD) daycares and long waits for military families to get a spot at the facilities, a bipartisan pair of Senators who lead oversight of Pentagon personnel policies is pushing the department to quickly increase childcare workers' pay. While DoD officials have identified the need to boost pay for childcare workers, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rick Scott, R-Fla., are urging Secretary of Defense (SecDef) Lloyd Austin to "implement the revised pay scale as quickly as possible."
"Congress and military families are counting on DoD to update its compensation model for direct care staff expeditiously so DoD can hire and retain more caregivers, and more military families can find the care they need," the Senators wrote in a letter to Austin that was obtained exclusively by Military.com. Warren chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee's personnel subcommittee, while Scott serves as its top Republican.
A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment on the Senators' letter, telling Military.com that, "as with all congressional correspondences, the department will respond directly to the authors." But the DoD released a plan to make quality-of-life improvements across the military that calls for higher salaries for managers and supervisors at childcare centers to help increase retention.
The Pentagon suggested part of the burden is on Congress, with a news release on the quality-of-life plan saying that the department is "working closely with Congress to fund compensation increases for childcare providers and to add key positions -- lead educators and special needs inclusion coordinators- -- that will enhance the developmental and educational support provided to children served by DoD child development centers."
Lawmakers
in both parties have expressed concern in recent years about military families
struggling to access affordable child care because of monthslong waitlists for
on-base day care centers. A bipartisan House panel that spent months studying military
quality-of-life issues concluded that childcare staff are leaving because of
low pay and recommended that Congress amend the law to ensure employees at
military childcare centers get "rates of pay competitive with market
rates."
Last
year, a Pentagon task force conducted its own study of recruitment, retention
and compensation for childcare workers that found the department's "direct
care staff pay is at the bottom of federal pay," according to a copy of
the task force report obtained by Military.com. "The current DoD [child
development program] staffing and compensation model framework was built 30
years ago," the report said.
"Considered
a national model at the time, components of the model have not kept pace with
the evolution of the child development field, increases in child care demand,
and the challenges of a competitive labor market." Meanwhile, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report
released this year found childcare staff turnover rates ranged
from 34% to 50% in 2022, depending on the military service.
The Childcare and Early Education Policy and Research Analysis project, run by the federal Department of Health and Human Services, considers a turnover rate of 20% to be high, the GAO noted. Citing the internal Pentagon task force and GAO findings, both U.S. Senators Warren and Scott pressed SecDef Austin for an answer on when a new pay scale will be implemented.
The pair also asked Austin for details on how the department will pay for an increase in childcare salaries, whether local Commanders will have the power to opt out of providing a pay raise, and how the department will measure improvements in retention and recruitment of childcare workers, among other questions. The Senators requested answers by October 3rd.
"The Department of Defense's affordable, high-quality childcare program is critical to military readiness by allowing service members to show up to work knowing their children are safe and well cared for," Warren said. "Low pay for childcare workers threatens this program. I'm pushing for DoD to improve its staffing capacity and pay workers a fair wage to ensure that more military families have access to this top-notch care."
