Is Daycare Work Minimum Wage? Childcare Pay vs State Minimum Wages

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour as of October 2026, and state minimums vary, with many set higher (U.S. Department of Labor).

Childcare jobs are generally covered by those floors like other hourly work.

Federal rules generally treat a typical licensed child care center's teachers as non-exempt employees — hourly and overtime-eligible.

The reason is that a licensed center is not automatically a federal "educational establishment": nursery-school programs count as elementary education only in states whose law treats them that way.

What that hourly status means for overtime and breaks is its own topic.

So how does market pay compare?

In May 2025, childcare workers — the BLS occupation (SOC 39-9011) that covers aides, assistants and many lead teachers in centers — earned a median of $16.82 an hour, or $34,980 a year (BLS OEWS).

The lowest-paid 10 percent earned $11.66 an hour or less, and the highest-paid 10 percent earned $22.12 an hour or more.

Percentiles describe the spread of pay across the occupation, so the 10th-percentile figure is not a starting wage.

One narrower cut puts daycare centers themselves in the picture: in child care services — the industry category (NAICS 6244) that covers daycare centers — childcare workers earned a median of $16.43 an hour, or $34,170 a year.

A separate occupation, preschool teachers (SOC 25-2011), the title covering many lead and pre-K teachers, earned a national median of $18.34 an hour, or $38,140 a year, across all industries, not only daycare centers.

How many daycare jobs actually pay near the minimum?

Our research found no verified figure for the share of childcare workers earning within $1 of the minimum wage, so treat any precise percentage you see with caution.

The comparison that is possible — your state's floor against the median where you live — is the one the next section walks through.

And if the deeper question is why market pay sits where it does — above the floor but still low — that is its own question, and a separate guide takes it up: see why pay is low.

The floor to check first is the ordinary minimum wage where the center operates.

The federal figure is $7.25 an hour, and state minimums vary, with many set higher (U.S. Department of Labor, as of October 2026).

In a state with a higher minimum, the state figure is generally the number employers and candidates there work with — your state labor agency is the body to confirm the current rate with.

Because minimum wage figures change, we have not printed a state-by-state table here.

The U.S. Department of Labor keeps the current minimum wage by state list, and it is the source to check for the live figure — including before you quote a number from an older article, this one included.

The comparison worth running is floor versus market in your state.

Pull the current minimum from the Department of Labor list, then set it against the median for childcare workers in your state — our childcare worker pay pages carry the state figures.

The distance between the two tells you whether an offer near the minimum sits far below your local median or close to it, and how far above the floor the local market already is.

Minimum wage law is not the only floor in childcare.

Some classrooms carry a written wage floor attached to their funding: to get the money, the employer agrees to pay at least a stated rate.

The verified examples fall into three kinds — wage floors attached to employer grants, minimum salaries attached to a state pay-equity fund, and a state pre-K salary schedule that reaches private centers.

Unlike the minimum wage, these floors bind only the programs that take the funding — a center that does not participate is not covered by the program's rate.

Wage floors attached to grants. Illinois' Smart Start Workforce Grants are employer grants, and grant-funded center classrooms must pay at least the program's wage floors.

For FY27 Round 1, which ran July through September 2026, the floors for lead teachers are $19.25 an hour in Group 1A counties — a group that includes Cook, DuPage and Lake — $18.50 an hour in Group 1B and $18.25 an hour in Group 2; assistant teachers have floors of $18.00 an hour, $17.25 an hour and $17.00 an hour in those same county groups.

The grants moved to the new Illinois Department of Early Childhood on July 1, 2026.

Minimum salaries attached to a fund. Washington, DC's Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund pays participating child development facilities — OSSE has paid participants quarterly since FY24 — and participants must agree to pay at least the minimum salaries by role and credential.

A lead teacher with a CDA must be paid at least $48,736 a year, or $23.43 an hour; a lead teacher with an ECE bachelor's at least $71,010 a year, or $34.14 an hour; and an assistant teacher with a CDA has the same $48,736 a year minimum as a lead teacher with a CDA.

Facilities are not required to join, and participants can depart from the minimums only with a waiver from OSSE, the agency that runs the fund.

The figures above are the reduced minimums effective January 1, 2026, and OSSE warned that employers may lower educators' pay as a result; our sources did not include the next round of DC minimums (the ones from October 2026), so confirm the current schedule with OSSE rather than an older source.

A state pre-K salary schedule that reaches private centers. Georgia's Pre-K program publishes a salary schedule that applies to private providers as well as public ones, with DECAL — the state agency that runs Georgia Pre-K — calculating private-site pay from the same state salary scale on a prorated calendar; the teachers remain employees of the provider.

For FY2027, lead teachers with an ECE bachelor's start at $41,717 a year, rising with experience, and assistant teachers are funded at $25,741.35 a year in 2026-27.

Coverage is program by program.

Our research did not verify a wage floor for centers receiving state child care funds in New Mexico, for example — ask the agency that administers child care funds in your state what its programs require.

Keep floors separate from supplements, too: a supplement is money paid on top of the wage, not the least an employer may pay.

North Carolina's Child Care WAGE$ program, for example, pays education-based salary supplements to teachers, directors and family child care providers working with children ages birth to 5 in participating counties — our wage supplement programs guide catalogs the state programs.

The floor is most useful as a benchmark.

Before you compare offers, line up the federal minimum, your state's current minimum from the Department of Labor list, and the median for your role in your state.

An offer near the minimum in a state where typical pay runs well above it suggests the offer is anchored to the floor rather than the local market; an offer above your state's median is one to take seriously.

Ask what funds the room.

A classroom paid for by a grant, a pay-equity fund or a state pre-K contract can carry a written floor of the kind in the last section, so ask whether the classroom is part of a state program and how the rate for your role was set.

The answer tells you whether the rate is anchored to something besides tuition.

Check what stacks on top.

A supplement does not change the employer's own rate — it adds to your take-home.

North Carolina's Child Care WAGE$ program, for example, pays education-based salary supplements to teachers, directors and family child care providers working with children ages birth to 5 in participating counties.

If your state runs one, your education level can qualify you for money the job ad never mentions.

This page is career information, not licensing or legal advice. Wage floors and program terms change — confirm current figures with the U.S. Department of Labor, your state labor agency, or the agency that administers the program named.