Worthy Wage Day

Good afternoon! It’s May 1, Worthy Wage Day. Today we celebrate the hard work and dedication of early childhood educators everywhere. Slap on your buttons and bumper stickers!

Click here to learn more about the AFT’s Worthy Wage Day campaign and find resources you can use to support worthy wages for early childhood educators. 

This year, the AFT is shining a spotlight on Worthy Wage Day with a weeklong series on our Voices from the Classroom blog, focused entirely on the early childhood education workforce. We’ve got guest posts from superstars like Liz Shuler, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO; Kris Perry, executive director of the First Five Years Fund; Shannon Rudisill, director of the Office of Child Care; and Helen Blank, director of Child Care and Early Learning at the National Women’s Law Center. And today, we’re featuring a special post by Lisa Antonelli, a preschool teacher from Massachusetts. Be sure to check out her personal story of struggling with the low-wage reality of being an early childhood educator.

We know that in the United States, the gap between the haves and the have-nots is widening every year. Parents and early educators are on the frontlines of an economic battlefield—while also holding the future of the nation in their hands. We must join together to close the paycheck divide between the classroom and the boardroom.

Join us to reclaim the promise of high-quality working environments for early educators, and high-quality learning environments for children.
 
Click here to share our Worthy Wage Day infographic on Facebook. And be sure to say “thanks” to an early childhood educator today! We wish you a happy Worthy Wage Day.