The child care wage supplement programs that add money to early educators' paychecks are run at the state level — by state agencies or the contractors they fund: WAGE$ in North Carolina and its sister programs, Illinois' Great START, Washington, DC's Pay Equity Fund, Georgia's $500 annual bonus and others, each with its own eligibility rules and amounts.
This guide maps every program we could verify as of October 2026 — who qualifies, typical amounts, how to apply, and which have ended.
What a wage supplement is
A wage supplement is money a state program adds to a childcare worker's income on top of the wages their program already pays.
It is not a raise from the center's own budget.
The state, or a contractor it funds, pays it because you meet terms the state sets: a credential level, a number of college credits, a wage below a cap, a stay at the same program, or a quality rating your program has earned.
The programs take three shapes on this page.
Some pay on a schedule: Child Care WAGE$ pays after each completed six-month commitment period at the same program, New Mexico's wage supplement pays twice a year in January and June, Illinois' Great START arrives as a check every six months, and Maine pays monthly stipends through licensed programs.
Some are bonuses.
Georgia pays a $500 annual Quality Rated Workforce Bonus.
Pennsylvania's 2025-26 program paid a one-time $450 retention bonus.
And Connecticut's Qualified Workforce Incentive awards up to $2,600.
Some flow through your program, too: since FY24, Washington, DC's OSSE pays participating child development facilities quarterly, and those facilities must pay minimum salaries; Minnesota pays programs based on their full-time-equivalent caregiving staff, and licensed centers must spend the payments on increased compensation, benefits, premium pay or related payroll taxes.
The administrators are worth naming, because their pages carry the current rules: Early Years, Inc. (formerly Child Care Services Association) runs WAGE$; New Mexico's ECECD runs its supplement through CNM Ingenuity; OSSE runs the DC fund; Georgia's DECAL pays the Quality Rated bonus; Minnesota's program lives in state statute, Minn.
Stat. 142D.21.
One boundary before the directory: a wage supplement is not a scholarship. T.E.A.C.H. scholarships pay most of the cost of tuition, books and travel for college coursework, with a stay commitment attached; wage supplements add money to your paycheck or arrive as bonus checks.
The applications, eligibility and payouts are separate, and this page stays on the paycheck side.
Wage supplement programs by state
Here is what our research could verify as of October 2026, with the paying agency or contractor named for each program.
- North Carolina — Child Care WAGE$. Run by Early Years, Inc., WAGE$ pays education-based salary supplements to teachers, directors and family child care providers working with children birth to 5 in participating counties. Payments come after each completed six-month commitment period at the same program — two payments a year if you are eligible all 12 months — and are prorated if you average under 30 hours a week.
- Florida, Iowa and Tennessee — WAGE$-model programs. The T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood National Center's Programs by State page lists WAGE$-model programs beyond North Carolina, including Florida INCENTIVE$, Iowa WAGE$ and Tennessee WAGE$. Florida's program pages blocked our read, so we could not verify its current amounts or counties — check the Children's Forum's INCENTIVE$ pages directly.
- District of Columbia — Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund. OSSE paid educators directly in FY22 (one payment of up to $14,000) and FY23 (up to four $3,500 installments); since FY24 it pays participating child development facilities quarterly, and those facilities must pay minimum salaries by role and credential. Facilities are not required to join — participants must be OSSE-licensed and agree to pay at least the minimum salaries unless OSSE approves a waiver.
- New Mexico — Early Childhood Wage Supplement. Run by the state's ECECD and managed by CNM Ingenuity, it pays education-based supplements twice a year, in January and June, to educators in licensed or registered home programs, Head Start and Early Head Start, or community-based NM PreK classrooms.
- Illinois — Great START. A wage supplement paid by check every six months to practitioners with college coursework who stay with the same employer; you must work 15 or more hours a week, hold Gateways Registry membership, and earn no more than $24.00 an hour and $49,920 a year. Illinois also funds the employer side: Smart Start Workforce Grants set wage floors for grant-funded center classrooms — for FY27 Round 1 (July–September 2026), $19.25 an hour for lead teachers in Group 1A counties including Cook, DuPage and Lake, $18.50 in Group 1B and $18.25 in Group 2, with assistant teachers at $18.00, $17.25 and $17.00 in those groups. The grants moved to the new Illinois Department of Early Childhood on July 1, 2026, and centers must have at least 15% of licensed capacity enrolled in CCAP (or a DCFS or military subsidy) to qualify.
- Pennsylvania — Child Care Staff Recruitment and Retention (CCSRR). The 2025-26 program provided up to $25 million, including a one-time $450 retention bonus for qualified staff at eligible DHS-certified providers with a CCW agreement, plus $450 recruitment bonuses for new hires. No 2026-27 round was found in our research — see the ended-programs section below.
- Maine — Early Childhood Educator Workforce Salary Supplement. Monthly stipends paid through licensed programs by MRTQ Registry level: $240 a month at Levels 1–4, $360 at Levels 5–6 and $540 at Levels 7–8; staff at Level 0 are not eligible. Family child care providers, owners and directors at a licensed facility or family child care program that holds — or has applied for — an OCFS vendor code are included.
- Minnesota — Great Start Compensation Support Payments. Minn. Stat. 142D.21 pays eligible programs noncompetitively based on full-time-equivalent caregiving staff (1 FTE means caring for children 32 hours a week, with a maximum of 2 FTE per person), plus a 10% boost for programs serving CCAP or Early Learning Scholarship families or located in access-equity areas. Licensed centers must spend the payments on increased compensation, benefits, premium pay or related payroll taxes for staff who regularly care for children.
- Connecticut — Qualified Workforce Incentive (QWI). Funded by the federal Preschool Development Grant, QWI awards up to $2,600: a $250–$2,000 base award set by employment status plus up to $600 in bonuses, for example for working 30 or more hours a week with infants and toddlers. Applications go through the OEC Registry.
- Georgia — Quality Rated Workforce Bonus. A $500 annual bonus, one per staff member per year, for eligible teachers and support staff at 1-, 2- or 3-star Quality Rated programs. DECAL announced it on April 1, 2025 with about $17 million a year in federal CCDF funding.
Colorado, Nebraska and Louisiana deliver part of this money through the tax system instead of a paycheck.
Colorado's Early Childhood Educator Income Tax Credit, running since tax year 2022, requires an ECE Professional Credential from CDEC, six months at a program rated Level 1 or higher in Colorado Shines, and federal AGI of $75,000 or less ($150,000 joint).
Nebraska's School Readiness Tax Credit is refundable and set by statute at $2,300 to $3,500 by Nebraska Early Childhood Professional Record System level, CPI-adjusted from tax year 2025 and subject to an aggregate cap.
Louisiana's School Readiness Tax Credits for directors and staff require working at the same facility at least six months of the year, averaging 30 or more hours a week; the credit amounts were not verified in our research.
Three more leads we could not verify, so that you know they were checked rather than missed: Arizona's First Things First Professional REWARD$ program page did not load when we read it, so its current status, amounts and eligibility are unconfirmed; New York's workforce retention bonus could not be verified for a current round (the state's workforce page returned an error); and beyond the Florida listing above, no Florida amounts could be confirmed.
Ask these programs directly rather than assuming either way.
Programs end and amounts change — confirm before you count on one
Who qualifies: hours, credentials and program type
Eligibility is where these programs differ most.
The same teacher can qualify in one state and miss in the next on hours alone.
Before you apply, check four things against your own situation: your average weekly hours, your education or registry level, your wage against the program's cap, and your program's setting or quality rating.
Hours. The floors are set per program.
WAGE$ asks for at least 10 hours a week and prorates payments below an average of 30.
Great START asks for 15 or more hours a week.
New Mexico asks for at least 20.
Georgia counts you as full-time on-site staff at 30 or more hours a week — 15 or more for school-age-only programs — with at least 90 days at the program.
Minnesota counts a full-time-equivalent caregiver as someone caring for children 32 hours a week, capped at 2 FTE per person.
Education and registry. WAGE$ requires an education level on its scale; New Mexico requires at least 3 ECE credit hours or a CDA, or enrollment toward one; Great START requires college coursework plus Gateways Registry membership; Maine keys its stipend amounts to MRTQ Registry level, and Level 0 staff are not eligible.
On the education-based programs, that is also the lever you control: moving up a level is what raises the amount.
Income caps. Three programs cut off above a wage.
WAGE$ uses a local income cap of $19, $23 or $25 an hour, chosen by the county's Smart Start partnership and fixed until June 2027.
Great START requires earnings of no more than $24.00 an hour and $49,920 a year.
New Mexico's program administrator puts the cap at less than $18 an hour, while the state ECECD page still says $16 or less — check both pages and ask which applies before you apply.
Setting and quality rating. WAGE$ covers teachers, directors and family child care providers working with children birth to 5, and Maine's supplement includes family child care providers, owners and directors.
New Mexico's covers licensed or registered home programs, Head Start and Early Head Start, and community-based NM PreK classrooms.
Georgia's bonus requires your program to hold a 1-, 2- or 3-star Quality Rated rating; DC's fund requires an OSSE-licensed facility that joins; Illinois' Smart Start grants require centers to enroll at least 15% of licensed capacity in CCAP or a DCFS or military subsidy.
Where the money lands decides who applies
Typical wage supplement amounts
Amounts are the first thing everyone asks and the first thing that changes.
The table holds the supplement and bonus payment amounts our research could verify, with their basis and date.
| Program | Amount | Basis and date |
|---|---|---|
| Child Care WAGE$ (NC) | $1,285 average | Program-wide average six-month supplement; period not stated on Early Years' page |
| Maine salary supplement | $240, $360 or $540 a month | By MRTQ Registry tier: Levels 1–4, Levels 5–6, Levels 7–8 |
| Georgia QR Workforce Bonus | $500 a year | One per staff member per year; announced April 1, 2025, about $17 million a year from CCDF |
| Connecticut QWI | Up to $2,600 | $250–$2,000 base award by employment status plus up to $600 in bonuses |
| DC Pay Equity Fund (historical) | Up to $14,000; up to four $3,500 installments | One-time FY22 and FY23 payments made directly to educators, before the FY24 switch to quarterly facility payments |
| Pennsylvania CCSRR (ended) | $450 one-time | 2025-26 program year; paid through payroll, all funds had to be spent by June 30, 2026 |
Some numbers are deliberately missing from that table because we could not verify them.
Early Years publishes WAGE$' dollar scale by education level as a fact sheet we could not retrieve, so the $1,285 average is the figure we can stand behind.
Illinois' Great START scale is published as an image we could not read.
New Mexico's supplement runs from Level 1 (3 ECE credits or a CDA) to Level 9 (120 ECE credits), but the pages we read publish no dollar amounts per level.
Minnesota's per-FTE amount is set by the commissioner and was not published in a form we could verify.
Ask each program for its current scale instead of working from a chart found elsewhere.
Two things move these amounts even when a program continues.
Counties choose one of three funding tiers under WAGE$, so the same education level can pay differently across county lines.
And DC's minimum salaries were reduced effective January 1, 2026, so figures published before the change are out of date.
Treat every amount here as what the program published when we read it in October 2026, and confirm the current figure with the administrator.
How to apply for a wage supplement
There is no common portal: each program runs on its own administrator's process, and some pay your program rather than you.
The sequence below works for any of them.
Confirm your state actually runs one
Start with the administrators named above: Early Years for North Carolina's WAGE$, the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood National Center's Programs by State page for the WAGE$-model programs elsewhere, and your state's early childhood department for the rest. If your state appears on no list — including the ones we could not verify — ask your state child care licensing agency or early childhood department directly.Get your registry membership in order first
Three programs run on registry status: Great START requires Gateways Registry membership, Connecticut's QWI takes applications through the OEC Registry, and Maine's stipends are keyed to your MRTQ Registry level. Registry membership is its own enrollment, separate from the supplement application, so sort it out before the application rather than during it.Check your wage against the cap
WAGE$ uses a local cap of $19, $23 or $25 an hour set by your county's Smart Start partnership; Great START requires earnings of no more than $24.00 an hour and $49,920 a year; New Mexico's administrator puts the cap at less than $18 an hour. Check the pay your program actually reports for you, not the rate you were offered.Find out who applies — you or your center
In Georgia, staff apply during the program's assigned application month. In Minnesota, the money goes to the center, which must spend it on staff compensation and related costs; in Washington, DC, the facility must meet OSSE's minimum salaries; and Illinois' Smart Start grants set wage floors for grant-funded classrooms — ask your director whether your center participates. Pennsylvania's retention bonuses were paid by providers through payroll within 45 days of receipt.Track the deadline and the payment cycle
WAGE$ pays after each completed six-month commitment period at the same program, so applying starts a cycle rather than producing one check. Pennsylvania's window closed with its funding — applications were due January 29, 2026 — and Connecticut's QWI page does not confirm a round is open now. Ask before you build a plan on either.
If none of the programs above covers your state, the direct question still works: ask your state child care licensing agency or early childhood department whether a wage supplement, retention bonus or compensation grant exists for center staff, and what its current terms are.
Programs on this page launched, changed or ended within the last two program years, so it is worth asking again even if you asked before.
Do wage supplements count as taxable income?
The honest answer is that the program pages we read do not settle this.
Georgia's DECAL notes that its $500 Quality Rated Workforce Bonus may be taxable; our research recorded nothing on tax treatment for the other supplement and bonus programs.
The payment mechanics differ in ways that matter for your taxes without deciding them.
Pennsylvania required its $450 retention bonuses to be paid through payroll within 45 days of receipt, and related payroll taxes are among the allowed uses of Great Start payments at Minnesota's licensed centers.
Great START, by contrast, arrives as a check every six months to the practitioner.
Maine's stipends are paid through licensed programs, and DC's fund paid educators directly in FY22 and FY23 before switching to quarterly payments to facilities.
How each of those payments is reported to tax authorities is not stated on the pages we read.
So treat the tax question as one to ask, not one to assume.
Ask the program administrator how the payment will be reported, keep the letters or forms the program sends you, and put your specific situation to a tax professional before you file.
No tax guidance here — ask before you file
Wage supplement and bonus programs that have ended
Three entries on this page are gone or reduced, so check the date attached to any figure before you rely on it.
- Connecticut's Wage Supplement Program — a one-time $2,800 payment per eligible teacher or assistant created by Public Act 24-91 — closed June 30, 2025. The Qualified Workforce Incentive described above is a separate program.
- Pennsylvania's CCSRR retention bonus was a one-time $450 payment in the 2025-26 program year. Applications closed January 29, 2026, bonuses had to be paid through payroll within 45 days of receipt, all funds had to be spent by June 30, 2026, and our research found no 2026-27 round.
- Washington, DC's Pay Equity Fund has not ended, but it shrank: the minimum salaries it enforces were reduced effective January 1, 2026, and OSSE warned educators that their employer may decrease their pay starting in January 2026. The FY22 payments of up to $14,000 and the FY23 installments of up to four $3,500 payments were one-time payments.
Pennsylvania's 2025-26 program carried up to $25 million, and our research found no 2026-27 round.
Among the continuing programs, we could verify funders for two: Georgia's bonus runs on about $17 million a year of federal CCDF money, and Connecticut's QWI on the federal Preschool Development Grant.
The pages we read do not name funders for the rest — one more reason to confirm a program still exists before you count on it.
This page is career information, not licensing, legal or tax advice. Program rules, amounts and deadlines change; confirm current details with the program administrator named above or your state child care licensing agency.