Head Start vs Daycare: Which Pays Teachers More?

This page compares pay only — rates, benefits, calendars and the credentials behind them.

For culture, class sizes and paperwork, see Head Start vs preschool as a workplace.

And one limit to accept up front: our read of the BLS wage tables found no Head Start breakout, so no median below is a Head Start figure — they are industry categories that Head Start grantees and centers fall into.

OEWS sorts preschool teachers (SOC 25-2011) by the industry that employs them.

In child daycare services (NAICS 6244), the median was $17.72 an hour or $36,850 a year in May 2025.

In individual and family services (NAICS 6241) — the category that includes many Head Start grantees — the median was $45,550 a year.

The catch is that grantees are classified under either category depending on the grantee, so 6241 is a proxy rather than Head Start pay.

Across all settings, preschool teachers earned a national median of $18.34 an hour ($38,140 a year), with a 10th percentile of $28,990 and a 90th percentile of $61,390 a year.

State and role-level figures sit on our Head Start teacher salary page.

Read the categories as a ladder.

Child daycare services paid a median of $36,850 a year.

The grantee-heavy individual and family services category paid $45,550.

Elementary and secondary schools paid a median of $56,750.

Within that category, local-government schools — public-school settings of the kind the parity benchmark points to — paid a median of $61,300.

On these May 2025 medians, the category where many Head Start grantees sit pays above child daycare services and below the school settings.

Whether a specific grantee pays more than the specific center down the street is set by each employer's own pay structure and calendar, not by the category averages: how grantees build pay is its own subject on our Head Start pay scale page.

The structural argument for higher Head Start pay is a rule, not a number.

The 2024 Head Start Program Performance Standards require that by August 1, 2031, each Head Start teacher receive an annual salary at least comparable to preschool teachers in public school settings in the local school district, adjusted for qualifications, experience and hours (45 CFR 1302.90(e)).

Our research found no federal rule pointing a private center's pay at an external benchmark.

But the requirement is contested: it is proposed for repeal, and the 2031 deadline has not arrived — so parity is a requirement with an uncertain future, not a guarantee today.

Head Start is the side of this comparison where a federal rule spells out benefits directly.

Under the 2024 standards, by August 1, 2028 programs must offer full-time staff — defined as those working 30 or more hours a week — health coverage or access to it, paid leave, and access to low-cost behavioral health services.

Agencies with 200 or fewer funded slots are exempt, so the mandate does not reach every grantee.

Our research found no Head Start-style federal benefits floor for private centers.

The federal rule that touches employer coverage most directly — the ACA employer coverage penalty — applies only to employers averaging at least 50 full-time employees, counting full-time equivalents, which likely leaves many single-site centers outside it.

What a center offers is set by the operator: read the benefits summary in the posting and ask for it in writing before you compare a center offer with a grantee offer on wage alone.

Two cautions cut both ways.

First, the benefits rule sits in the same section the May 2026 proposal would delete, so the 2028 deadline is as contested as the pay deadline.

Second, a benefits mandate is a floor, not a description of any actual package.

Compare the actual package: coverage, leave, and any tuition or credential support, against the same list from the other employer.

Calendars change what an annual figure is worth.

BLS notes that many public-school preschool teachers work the traditional 10-month school year with a 2-month summer break, while preschool teachers in daycare settings may work year-round with longer hours.

A $36,850 salary paid over 12 months and one concentrated into a school year are different monthly incomes, so before comparing offers, ask each employer whether the salary is paid across the full year and what the weekly schedule runs.

For Head Start specifically, our research did not confirm a national calendar pattern: program calendars are set grantee by grantee, so ask each program whether it runs a school-year schedule, a year-round one, or extended-day options.

That question matters at Head Start because the parity benchmark itself adjusts for qualifications, experience and hours — hours are written into the pay formula while the rule stands.

Hours also interact with how you are paid.

Federal rules define an “educational establishment” as an elementary or secondary school system, an institution of higher education, or another educational institution, and count nursery-school programs as elementary education only in some States.

A typical licensed child care center is therefore not automatically an educational establishment, so its teachers are generally non-exempt: hourly and overtime-eligible, unless state law treats the program as elementary education.

That makes overtime a live question on a year-round center schedule in a way it may not be on a salaried school-year schedule.

Wage-and-hour classification questions belong with the U.S. Department of Labor or your state labor department.

The pay structures differ because the credential floors differ.

BLS states that center-based Head Start preschool teachers need at least an associate degree, and that at least 50 percent of Head Start preschool teachers nationwide must hold a bachelor's degree in early childhood education or a related field — a requirement on each program's teaching workforce, not a rule that every individual teacher holds a bachelor's.

Outside Head Start, the floor comes from your state's child care licensing agency, and teacher minimums vary by state.

BLS says preschool teachers typically need at least an associate degree, while public-school preschool teachers generally need a bachelor's degree and an early childhood license.

Where a national credential enters a center job, BLS calls the CDA the credential states most often require of childcare workers who need a national credential; the Council for Professional Recognition awards it, and it must be renewed every 3 years.

That ladder is why the pay comparison looks the way it does.

The parity rule adjusts the comparable salary for qualifications, experience and hours, so credentials and experience are written into the Head Start formula while the rule stands.

In practice: center-based Head Start preschool teachers need at least an associate degree, with at least 50 percent of its preschool teachers nationwide required to hold a bachelor's, while the public-school settings the benchmark is drawn from generally require a bachelor's degree plus an early childhood license.

Whether that credential investment pays off depends on the schedules you are actually comparing — which is why the practical move is to pull a grantee's posting and a center's posting side by side.

Career information, not licensing or legal advice. Head Start pay and benefit rules sit in 45 CFR 1302.90, administered by the Office of Head Start, and were proposed for repeal as of October 2026; state licensing questions belong with your state's child care licensing agency, and wage-and-hour questions with the U.S. Department of Labor. Confirm current rules before you accept an offer or set a pay scale.