Jobs in the Balance: The Early Employment Impacts of Washington, DC’s Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund

Despite the contributions of their work to the learning and development of young children, child care and early education (CCEE) educators are among the lowest paid workers in the United States and have high rates of turnover in their jobs. In a pioneering effort, Washington, DC has launched the nation’s first large-scale, publicly funded program to supplement CCEE educator wages. The Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund (PEF) was created to achieve compensation equity with DC Public Schools teachers. This initiative, launched in Fall 2022, delivered initial lump sum payments ranging from $10,000 to $14,000 to approximately 3,000 CCEE educators across the city.

This policy research brief shares findings from a study using quasi-experimental methods to examine the immediate impacts of these initial payments on CCEE employment levels in Washington, DC. The analysis uses synthetic control methods and data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages for the period between 2019 and 2022. These datasets and the programs used to conduct the analysis are available for download here.