Bright Horizons' 2025 annual report lists benefits and wage trends but attaches no hourly figure to any role, and our research found no posted Bright Horizons rate.
What is public: 3-4% average hourly wage increases in its full-service center segment in 2025, a 401(k) match, child care tuition subsidies, a no-cost CDA and ECE degree program, and May 2025 national medians of $16.82/hour (childcare workers) and $18.34/hour (preschool teachers).
Bright Horizons pay by role: what's actually published
Bright Horizons reported approximately 32,200 employees globally as of December 31, 2025, about 18,450 of them in North America — but its 2025 annual report attaches an hourly pay rate to none of the classroom roles.
The filing describes benefits and wage trends in some detail, and no Bright Horizons-posted wage figure was found in our research.
The pay trend the filing does disclose is directional: the 2025 annual report cites average hourly wage rate increases in the range of 3-4% in its full-service center segment.
That tells you pay moved in 2025; the filing itself carries no base rates, role differentials or starting wages.
The closest public benchmarks are the Bureau of Labor Statistics occupations that cover center staff, from the May 2025 national survey:
- Childcare workers (SOC 39-9011) — the BLS category that covers aides, assistants and many lead teachers in centers — earned a national median of $16.82 per hour ($34,980 a year); the 10th percentile earned $11.66 and the 90th $22.12.
- Preschool teachers except special education (SOC 25-2011) — lead preschool and pre-K teachers — earned a national median of $18.34 per hour ($38,140 a year); the 10th percentile earned $13.94 and the 90th $29.52.
- Preschool and childcare center directors (SOC 11-9031) earned a national median of $28.51 per hour ($59,300 a year).
None of these is a Bright Horizons pay scale.
They are medians across every employer in each occupation — chains, independents and schools — so treat them as a market yardstick: a posted range at a Bright Horizons center in your city measures against your state's median, not against a national chain average — our research found no source that publishes one.
An independent page about a public company
Benefits, tuition subsidies and the no-cost degree program
Bright Horizons' 2025 annual report lists these employee benefits:
- Healthcare
- 401(k) with matching contributions
- Paid time off
- Child care tuition subsidies — listed without an amount or percentage
- Paid parental bonding leave
- The Horizons CDA and Degree Program, which pays for a CDA, an associate or a bachelor's ECE degree at no cost
Two of these change the math in ways an hourly rate does not show.
The tuition subsidy goes toward employees' child care tuition, and the Horizons CDA and Degree Program pays for the CDA and the ECE degrees beyond it at no cost to the employee.
For a teacher planning the CDA-to-degree route, that is the benefit to price first — tuition you don't pay is compensation the hourly rate never counts.
The filing names the benefit, not the details
How Bright Horizons pay compares with other centers
Bright Horizons' own filing frames the comparison from the company's side: its 2025 annual report states that many competitors offer lower prices by using less intensive ratios and lower compensation and benefits.
Read that as the company's characterization of its market, written for investors — it is not an independent pay survey, and it attaches no wage figure to either group.
Our research found no apples-to-apples chain comparison to check it against.
KinderCare, the other public chain whose SEC filings our research covered, publishes no teacher hourly rates either.
For Childtime, Tutor Time, La Petite Academy, Childcare Network, Primrose, Goddard, Kiddie Academy and The Learning Experience, our research found no SEC filings and verified no employer-published pay rates.
With nothing like-for-like, we don't rank chains by pay — live postings are the honest comparison.
What BLS does show is a setting gap inside the industry.
Preschool teachers earned a median of $27.29 per hour ($56,750 a year) in elementary and secondary schools in May 2025 versus $17.72 ($36,850) in child care services (NAICS 6244); local-government schools paid a $61,300-a-year median and private elementary and secondary schools $44,290 a year.
That compares centers as a whole with schools — it blends every brand, so it does not single Bright Horizons out.
Bright Horizons pay by state and market
Bright Horizons' 2025 annual report discloses no pay rates by state, city or market: the 3-4% wage-increase figure is a segment-wide company average, and our research verified no Bright Horizons rate at any level of geography.
What a market changes is the yardstick around the job — BLS publishes median wages for childcare workers and preschool teachers by state from the same May 2025 release.
Our daycare teacher salary tables list the state medians, with links on to preschool-teacher pay by state.
Measuring a posted Bright Horizons range in your city against your state's median tells you whether an offer sits above or below the local market.
How to find Bright Horizons teacher openings
Two sources beat every average on this page.
The first is the employer itself: chains post openings center by center, and a current Bright Horizons posting that lists pay is an actual, dated Bright Horizons number.
When a posting shows a range, ask how your role, classroom assignment and experience map to it.
The second is a job board where you can compare several centers at once.
ChildcareHires lists childcare teacher jobs at centers and preschools, so you can weigh posted pay and benefits across employers — chain and independent — before you apply anywhere.
- The posted pay range for the specific role and classroom, not a segment average
- Which benefits start when — hiring date, waiting periods, and who qualifies
- What the Horizons CDA and Degree Program covers for you: which credential or degree, and what it costs
- What moving from assistant to lead teacher does to pay at that center
Career information, not licensing or legal advice. Figures on this page come from Bright Horizons' public SEC filings and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, named where used. Confirm what a specific job offers with the employer, and wage-and-hour questions with the U.S. Department of Labor or your state labor agency.