Ontario is set to increase the wages of early childhood educators in a bid to boost recruitment and retention.
Advocates say the growth of the national $10-a-day child-care program will be hampered by a staff shortage because there won’t be enough people to operate the 86,000 new spaces the province plans to open.
Ontario committed to set a wage floor of $18 an hour and increase it by $1 a year up to $25, but advocates say it hasn’t been enough to stop people from leaving the sector in droves.
The Association of Early Childhood Educators of Ontario has called for a minimum of $30 an hour for ECE’s and $25 an hour for non-ECE staff members.
