Bill > A2241

Introduced Session

This bill requires the Department of Human Services (department), in collaboration with the Department of Children and Families, to establish and administer the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Program, and establishes the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund to be the repository of State funds appropriated, and any private funds available, for this program's purpose. The goal of the program is to provide funds to child development facilities to increase the minimum compensation for early childhood educators employed by those facilities, based on the educator's degree, years of experience, position title. Child care providers in New Jersey are primarily funded through parent-paid tuition, which is set by providers based upon market analysis, not on the actual cost of delivering high-quality care. Additionally, low-income families may receive financial support through the New Jersey Child Care Subsidy Program, with these subsidies only covering only about 75 percent of the market rate for care. As a result, neither parent-paid tuition nor State subsidies cover the true cost of high-quality early education and care. This leaves providers operating on razor-thin margins, unable to offer competitive wages to educators without cutting non-salary costs or significantly raising tuition for families. The child care industry, however, is a highly regulated industry, and providers risk compromising health and safety standards and their State licensure if certain costs are reduced. Conversely, raising tuition would make child care unaffordable for most families and precluded participation in the Child Care Subsidy Program, leaving low-income families without care options. It is the sponsor's belief that is not sustainable for the child care industry in New Jersey to remain both heavily regulated and primarily funded by working families--at the expense of the early care and education workforce. This bill provides the public investment that is urgently needed to sustain child care providers, as well as the workforce that delivers these critical services to New Jersey families. Under the bill, a "child development facility" means a child care provider or a family child care provider. An "early childhood educator" is defined to mean an individual who is employed by a child development facility and, in that capacity, is involved directly in the care, development, and education of infants, toddlers, or young children age five and under. To implement the program, the department is to annually specify the minimum salaries paid to early childhood educators under the program in the Early Childhood Educator Salary Scale, which is to be based on an educator's position, years of experience, and degree, and is to provide for pay parity between early childhood educators employed in child development facilities and comparable educators employed at public schools within the State. The department is also mandated to establish and periodically update the Child Development Facility Payment Formula used to determine the grant payments issued to participating child development facilities. The formula is to incorporate the estimated cost for a child development facility to implement the Early Childhood Educator Salary Scale, and provide increased funding to child development facilities serving families and communities with limited economic resources. In the event that funds available are insufficient to cover the costs of the program, the department may do any combination of the following: reduce grant payments to participating child development facilities to align with the availability of funds and issue guidance to facilities for adjusting implementation of the Early Childhood Educator Salary Scale; or reduce the number of child development facilities receiving grant payments, in which case the department is to prioritize funding to facilities receiving subsidy payments under the New Jersey Child Care Subsidy Program.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Shama Haider (D)*,  Shanique Speight (D)*, 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Aging and Human Services Committee (on 01/13/2026)

Official Document