Wait. Why are childcare workers in this area so poorly paid?

[Anonymous]

I'm just running the numbers here. If an average Arlington preschool charges appx $1600/child.

Assume they have three rooms:
2s room with 10 kids
3s room with 20 kids
4s room with 20 kids


So that is 50 kids x $1600/mo = $80,000/mo or $960,000/yr.

Assume rent is 10k/mo so $120,000/yr (and I think that is a high rent estimate - might be way lower if the center is in a church for example).
Assume is it $10/kid/day to feed them, so $500/week, $2000/mo, $24,000/year
Assume an annual insurance premium of $10,000
Assume utility costs of $1000/mo, so $12,000/yr
Assume misc operating expenses of $1000/mo so $12,000/yr
So that is $178,000 before salaries

Assume you paid 9 livable teacher salaries at $60,000 so $540,000/yr
Assume one director salary at $80,000

So 178,000+$540,000+80,000 = $798,000

That still leaves a profit of $162,000 for the owner of the daycare.

That is with a good wage for the teachers and extremely high assumptions for rent, insurance, utilities, and operating expenses.

My point is that it seems like with gross profit of $960,000/yr, there is a decent cushion to pay the teachers better. Instead, daycare owners seem to be chintzing these poor teachers on salary. No wonder there is so much turnover.

[Anonymous]

Preach.

[Anonymous]

You are just making up numbers, you clearly don't know the cost of renting space that meets all the requirements for a daycare, plus has access to the outside in Arlington. You're also leaving out many things, from small from art supplies, to payroll costs, to curriculum, and you have crappy ratios, especially in that 3 year old room. 2 adults for 20 kids at that age is chaos.

For one thing, in education we generally figure that an employee costs about 1/3 again as much as their salary. That covers health insurance, sick and annual leave, professional development etc . . . Apply that to the salaries you have, and you've already exceeded all the money you think of as profit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are just making up numbers, you clearly don't know the cost of renting space that meets all the requirements for a daycare, plus has access to the outside in Arlington. You're also leaving out many things, from small from art supplies, to payroll costs, to curriculum, and you have crappy ratios, especially in that 3 year old room. 2 adults for 20 kids at that age is chaos.

For one thing, in education we generally figure that an employee costs about 1/3 again as much as their salary. That covers health insurance, sick and annual leave, professional development etc . . . Apply that to the salaries you have, and you've already exceeded all the money you think of as profit.

Not the OP, but I worked in childcare/early education and never received health benefits, and had minimal "professional development" (ie we might have a volunteer come speak to us for an hour here and there). Also had minimal sick leave which sucks when you work with young kids and get sick a lot.

To answer the OP, childcare workers are poorly paid everywhere because they aren't considered valuable to our society as a whole.

[Anonymous]

Your rent number is low, double that. Also, you’re assuming full enrollment of older kids, which is pretty difficult. The high demand and waitlists are for the under 2s, which are much more expensive at a 3-1 ratio. Also you left out payroll taxes and insurance unless you’re lumping those in with salaries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are just making up numbers, you clearly don't know the cost of renting space that meets all the requirements for a daycare, plus has access to the outside in Arlington. You're also leaving out many things, from small from art supplies, to payroll costs, to curriculum, and you have crappy ratios, especially in that 3 year old room. 2 adults for 20 kids at that age is chaos.

For one thing, in education we generally figure that an employee costs about 1/3 again as much as their salary. That covers health insurance, sick and annual leave, professional development etc . . . Apply that to the salaries you have, and you've already exceeded all the money you think of as profit.

Not the OP, but I worked in childcare/early education and never received health benefits, and had minimal "professional development" (ie we might have a volunteer come speak to us for an hour here and there). Also had minimal sick leave which sucks when you work with young kids and get sick a lot.

To answer the OP, childcare workers are poorly paid everywhere because they aren't considered valuable to our society as a whole.

But OP is arguing that you can do right by your employees and still make a significant profit. Paying your employees $60K and not giving them health insurance, or sick leave isn't the solution.

I've only done childcare in DC but there are laws about the amount of PD, and about things like CPR training. The big cost of PD isn't the PD provider, it's the leave for the staff. If you have to give each of your 10 staff 4 hours of leave for CPR, that's a chunk of money even if you're paying them minimum wage.

I absolutely agree that we seriously undervalue childcare, but $1,600/month fee that someone cites isn't actually what it would cost to provide quality care.

[Anonymous]

Kids get cheaper the older they get. Only the 2 year old is paying $1600

[Anonymous]

I think it's because many people think that basically anybody can take care of young kids. Therefore few qualifications are demanded. People with few qualifications don't make much money, in any field.

I personally don't believe that just anybody could take care of my children when they were young. That's why I did it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your rent number is low, double that. Also, you’re assuming full enrollment of older kids, which is pretty difficult. The high demand and waitlists are for the under 2s, which are much more expensive at a 3-1 ratio. Also you left out payroll taxes and insurance unless you’re lumping those in with salaries.

Yes. You are way underestimating rent. And most centers are open at least 9 to 11 hours a day, so you need two shifts of staff depending on numbers. Most places provide 2 healthy snacks a day (include a fruit or veggie). They have to provide supplies, replenish toys and books etc. I think the math is a lot more complex.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids get cheaper the older they get. Only the 2 year old is paying $1600

And realistically, you aren't going to be able to have a preschool with 10 2 year old spots feeding into 20 3's. The math just doesn't work. Most daycares have to have the infant/toddler/2's spots to get the kids in, because recruiting for 3 and 4 year olds.

Realistically, even if you assume they start at 2, the school would need 2 2 year old rooms, so add 3 more teachers ($180K in salaries before covering leave, or paying payroll taxes, or insurance or anything else) for $192K gross.

[Anonymous]

Your rent, utilities and insurance numbers are way too low.
With your numbers you're not getting 50 kids in there.

[Anonymous]

Also, daycares can’t raise prices to pay more b/c it soon becomes more economical to hire a nanny.

[Anonymous]

You’re not wrong. Look up the 990s of nonprofit daycares. One of the reasons we left ours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You’re not wrong. Look up the 990s of nonprofit daycares. One of the reasons we left ours.

How do you find that?

[Anonymous]

You are also not calculating the cost of fingerprinting, criminal clearances, maintenance, phones, computers, clerical help for record keeping etc. So much more goes into the cost of running a childcare facility than you might imagine.