KinderCare's fiscal 2025 annual report lists no teacher pay rates: it describes “competitive wages” for eligible full-time employees but gives no hourly figure, and no KinderCare-posted wage number was found in our research.
What is public: a workforce of approximately 43,700, benefits with a 401(k) match and discounted tuition for employees' children, and May 2025 benchmarks of $16.82/hour (childcare workers) and $18.34/hour (preschool teachers) nationwide.
KinderCare pay by role: what's actually published
The industry's own occupational mix shows the classroom roles centers hire: across child care services (NAICS 6244) nationwide, preschool teachers are 34.6% of jobs, childcare workers 26.9%, teaching assistants 14.0% and center directors 6.0% (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
KinderCare's annual filing gives a pay rate for none of them.
Its fiscal 2025 annual report filed with the SEC says it offers eligible full-time employees “competitive wages” — and no number — and no KinderCare-posted wage figure was found in our research.
The closest public benchmarks are the two Bureau of Labor Statistics occupations that cover most center teaching 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.
Within child care services (NAICS 6244) itself, childcare workers earned a median of $16.43 per hour ($34,170 a year).
These are medians across every employer in the occupation and industry, not KinderCare rates: they tell you the neighborhood, not the house.
The one number that counts for you is the pay on a current posting, if it lists any, or in your own offer.
An independent page about a public company
Benefits and the staff tuition discount
KinderCare's fiscal 2025 annual report lists these benefits for eligible full-time employees:
- Competitive wages — the filing's phrase, with no figures attached
- Health and wellness benefits
- Matching 401(k) contributions
- Life insurance
- Discounted tuition for employees' children enrolled in its centers and onsite programs
Two caveats matter when you compare offers.
The filing describes these benefits for eligible full-time employees — approximately 35,700 of its approximately 43,700 employees were full-time as of January 3, 2026 — and it names the tuition discount without a percentage.
For part-time eligibility, ask the center.
The filing names the benefit, not the details
How KinderCare pay compares with other centers
The BLS medians above blend employers of every type — chains and independents alike — and identify none of them, so they can't separate a KinderCare classroom from the program down the street.
What they do show clearly is the school-versus-center gap: 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).
One offset: BLS notes that many public-school preschool teachers work the traditional 10-month school year, while those in daycare settings may work year-round with longer hours.
Bright Horizons, the other chain whose SEC filings our research covered, reported approximately 32,200 employees globally at December 31, 2025, approximately 18,450 of them in North America.
Its 2025 annual report lists healthcare, 401(k) matching contributions, paid time off, child care tuition subsidies, paid parental bonding leave and a program that pays for a CDA, associate or bachelor's ECE degree at no cost, and it reported 3-4% average hourly wage rate increases in its full-service center segment in 2025.
The other big brands — Learning Care Group's Childtime, Tutor Time and La Petite Academy, plus Childcare Network, Primrose, Goddard, Kiddie Academy and The Learning Experience — turned up no SEC filings in our research, and no employer-published pay data for them was verified either.
With no like-for-like employer-published rates, we don't rank chains by pay.
Use the industry medians and live postings instead.
KinderCare pay by state and market
KinderCare's annual filing publishes no pay rates, so it says nothing about how pay differs from one state or city to another — and our research found no verified KinderCare figure at any level of geography.
For a specific center, a posting that lists pay is the answer.
What is public is how the market moves around the country.
State minimum wages set different floors — the federal minimum is $7.25 per hour, state minimums vary, and many are higher — and BLS publishes median wages for childcare workers and preschool teachers by state.
Our state-by-state daycare teacher salary page has the childcare-worker medians by state from the same May 2025 release, with a link to preschool-teacher pay by state.
Comparing your state's medians with a KinderCare posting in your city tells you whether an offer sits above or below the local market.
How to find KinderCare teacher openings
Two sources beat every average.
The first is the employer itself: chains post openings center by center, and if a current posting lists pay, that is an actual, dated KinderCare 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 side by side before you apply anywhere.
- The posted pay range for the specific role and classroom, not a company-wide average
- Which benefits start immediately and which have a waiting period
- Whether the employee tuition discount applies at your location and how deep it is
- What a move from assistant to lead teacher does to pay at that center
Career information, not licensing or legal advice. Figures on this page come from public SEC filings and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Confirm anything a specific job offers with the employer, and wage-and-hour questions with the U.S. Department of Labor or your state labor agency.