Speaker Menin on ECE pay parity data collection

Moving to pay parity.

for early childhood education workers, what is the average salary and working hours for the ECE workforce by setting, including contracted home-based providers, contracted CBO providers,

and NYCPS-run programs?

Yeah.

First of all, thank you for the question.

We recognize the need in this area, the great need for ensuring that some of our most vulnerable employees

are made, that pay parity is moving.

It's a really important issue, and so I'm going to turn it over to Deputy Chancellor Hawkins to talk a little bit more about this.

Thank you, Chancellor.

Thank you, Speaker.

So we're working really closely with the Mayor's Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Education, Speaker, to get that data set.

I want to be clear that there is a subset of the provider universe that lives within and partners with New York City public schools.

We do not manage the full gamut.

And so to understand what that average true cost is across the settings, we are working with the Mayor's Office.

What we can say, it does vary, to your point, right?

And so we have a subset of provider-based that are contracted and center-based programs.

Those that are unionized with DC 37, they have one rate.

Those that are non-union have a different rate.

And then our colleagues in New York City public schools working in district schools have a separate rate of pay, which is dictated by the U.S.

of T, collective bargaining agreement.

The hours vary across these settings, so I can't give you the average, but we are going to work to provide more centralized data at some point.

I want to also reinforce that we are in full support of compensation parity, going beyond that of pay, but understanding that some of our provider partners don't even have select insurances to support their fringe rate.

And so we are in active discussions with the mayor's office.

I'm very concerned about the collection.

This data has to be collected.

I mean, we have to understand this issue because if we ever want to get to universal child care, and this council has worked for years, we passed a whole package of bills back in 2022.

Mandating universal child care.

So this is not a new issue for us.

We've been hammering on this issue of pay parity for many, many years.

So I'm concerned that we don't have, that DEWE doesn't have that data.

Do you intend to collect data either through a survey, the contracting process, perhaps in partnership with agencies such as DOHMH and others?

So again, we agree, Speaker, but that data would not live with New York City public schools because we are talking about the entire system of early care and education.

And so we are very excited that the Mayor's Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Education is really interested in leading this effort.

So yes, we will be pursuing that data.

Okay.

I'm going to ask on two other topics and then...

turn it over to my colleagues and I'll come back on second round.