How much should you pay a childcare teacher? Setting a competitive wage

Three BLS benchmarks frame the national picture.

In the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for May 2025, childcare workers (SOC 39-9011) earn a U.S. median of $16.82 an hour ($34,980 a year), with a 10th-to-90th-percentile spread of $11.66 to $22.12; preschool teachers, except special education (SOC 25-2011), earn a median of $18.34 an hour ($38,140 a year), spreading from $13.94 to $29.52.

Neither is titled "lead teacher": BLS publishes no occupation for Head Start teachers, Montessori teachers, floaters or substitutes, and pay guidance for classroom roles runs through the nearest SOC — these two occupations are it.

Two cautions before you use them.

The figures describe wage distributions across industries and settings nationwide: a 10th-percentile wage is not entry-level pay, and the 90th is not a cap.

And the industry you operate in pays below the national line — within private child care services (NAICS 6244), May 2025 medians are $16.43 an hour for childcare workers and $17.72 for preschool teachers, below the all-industry medians for the same occupations.

The direct competition for classroom staff is other centers — child care services employers — so the industry series is the closer read on that set.

To find what centers near you pay, narrow to your state. Our childcare teacher salary data carries the state-level BLS figures for childcare workers (SOC 39-9011), and our preschool teacher salary data carries them for preschool teachers (SOC 25-2011) — pull both before you set a range, because a national median alone is a coarse read for one classroom.

Job postings are the second source, and in some states the law requires pay disclosure in the posting.

Our research verified, against primary law, posted pay requirements in eight states: California (employers with 15 or more employees), Colorado (all job postings, internal and public), New York (four or more employees), Washington (15 or more, wage scale or salary range), Illinois (15 or more, pay scale and benefits), Minnesota (30 or more, good-faith salary range), Massachusetts (25 or more, since October 29, 2025) and Vermont (five or more).

Other states are reported to have similar laws that our research did not verify, so wherever you operate, confirm your state's current requirement with your state labor agency, and scan the postings of the centers within your pickup radius, the local Head Start grantee and the district's pre-K listings — log the ranges you find and date them.

Read the market from the candidate's side too: browse childcare teacher jobs to see how postings present pay, and when you are ready to run the whole search, the screening and onboarding steps sit in our guide to hiring a childcare teacher.

Our research found no national figure that sets a pay premium per credential, and you should not budget from an assumed one.

What the data supports is narrower: the occupation medians above show the market pricing the two classroom series differently, and the spread inside preschool teachers runs from $13.94 at the 10th percentile to $29.52 at the 90th.

Set your steps from your own ladder and your local data, not from a national "CDA bump."

The credential worth a step is the one your state's rule names.

BLS notes that some states and employers require childcare workers to hold a nationally recognized credential, most often the Child Development Associate (CDA), which must be renewed every 3 years; your state child care licensing agency sets whatever minimum applies to your lead teachers.

When a credential gates the role, the raise belongs at its completion: name the step amount in writing before the coursework starts, and pay it when the credential lands.

A step announced after the tuition is spent buys little of the loyalty you are paying for.

Some teachers can also earn a supplement outside your payroll.

In North Carolina, Child Care WAGE$ — run by Early Years, Inc., formerly Child Care Services Association — pays education-based salary supplements to teachers, directors and family child care providers working with children birth to 5 in participating counties; eligibility includes earning at or below a local income cap ($19, $23 or $25 an hour, chosen by the local Smart Start partnership), payments arrive after each completed six-month commitment period at the same program, and Early Years reports an average six-month supplement of $1,285.

The T.E.A.C.H.

Early Childhood National Center lists WAGE$-model programs in some other states.

The supplement goes to the teacher, not to your center, and a raise that lifts a teacher above an income cap can end their eligibility — so check whether a program operates in your area and how its rules work, but do not count it as part of your raise.

Then make the ladder visible — base rate by role, the credential each step expects, the raise each completed step carries — and keep it where staff can find it.

The retention playbook covers career ladders and the scholarship models that fund them; the decision on this page is the step amounts your budget can keep.

Public pre-K is the competitor your teachers can see.

Preschool teachers in elementary and secondary schools had a May 2025 median of $27.29 an hour ($56,750 a year) — far above the $17.72 child care industry median for the same occupation.

A teacher weighing your offer against a public-school position is comparing against that figure, whether or not a district job is open this month.

Head Start is harder to benchmark: BLS publishes no occupation for Head Start teachers, so no BLS series can be quoted as Head Start teacher pay, and the grantees' own job postings are the practical source for their ranges.

The federal picture is also in motion.

Current Head Start law requires programs, by August 1, 2031, to pay each Head Start teacher a salary at least comparable to public-school preschool teachers in the local district, adjusted for responsibilities, qualifications, experience and hours — but both that parity provision and the Head Start director degree rule are current law subject to pending 2026 proposals to remove them, and a May 2026 proposed rule would remove the wage-and-benefit requirements; parity has never yet been in force for wages.

Benchmark against the postings you can read today, not against parity arriving.

The practical read: your direct competitor set is the child care services employers around you — the $16.43 and $17.72 industry medians — while the school-side median is the benchmark your most credentialed teachers measure against.

What centers control is where a center-based job can win against both: schedule stability, protected breaks, funded credentials and a real voice in the classroom.

The hourly rate is not the cost. Employer payroll taxes ride on the wage: for 2026, Social Security tax is 6.2% for the employer on wages up to $184,500 and Medicare is 1.45% with no wage cap.

Federal unemployment tax adds 6.0% on the first $7,000 of each employee's wages — a net 0.6% where the full 5.4% state credit applies.

Price each rung of your scale as an annual loaded figure, not an hourly sticker.

Paid time that is not teaching time belongs in the same math. Under federal wage-hour rules, training, meetings and lectures are unpaid only if all four tests are met — outside regular hours, truly voluntary, not directly job-related, and no productive work performed — and state-mandated licensing training is generally paid work time under those tests.

Short rest breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes are paid hours worked, and a meal break is unpaid only when the employee is completely relieved from duty, ordinarily 30 minutes or more — a teacher supervising children through lunch is working.

Budget the coverage that makes real breaks possible.

Floors and overtime frame the range. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour for employers covered by the FLSA; your state's rate may be higher, so confirm the current figure with your state labor agency.

And do not budget a lead teacher as salaried-exempt by default: the FLSA teacher exemption carries no minimum salary, but it applies only when the primary duty is teaching and the employer is an "educational establishment" — a test that depends on state law, since nursery school programs count only "in some States," and many daycare teachers are therefore not overtime-exempt.

Confirm wage-hour treatment with the Department of Labor or employment counsel before you post a salary.

Then the tuition side, which is a decision you control rather than an emergency you absorb.

Compute what each scale step costs per year, loaded, before you announce it; decide deliberately whether tuition, enrollment or the schedule carries it; and size it to last — a raise announced and later walked back costs more than one sized to fit the first time.

Our research found no single national turnover rate to beat: published estimates run from under 10 percent to 46 percent depending on the study, the state and the method.

The number that matters is your own — departures per period over your average staff count, tracked the same way every year.

Raises are one lever among several (the retention playbook covers the schedule, leadership and stay-payment moves), but the base rate is the floor the other levers stand on.

Design raises to be predictable, because predictability is most of their value.

Publish the scale.

Review it against the same market sources at the same time each year — the state figures and the competitor postings you pulled when you set it.

Put the next step in writing before the year turns, and attach raises to credentials so growth has a schedule: the step lands when the credential does, not at whichever review it happens to precede.

When base cannot move this year, say when it can, and put that date in writing too.

Finally, say the rate out loud when you hire.

Where your state requires posted pay — including the eight states our research verified — the law asks for the pay in the ad anyway; where it does not, it is still the cheapest screening you can run — candidates who would leave over the rate self-select out, and the ones who apply have already accepted the number.

The childcare teacher job description template shows where the range belongs in the ad.

This page is employer information, not licensing or legal advice. Wage figures are BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Wage-hour, payroll-tax, pay-transparency and staff qualification rules change and vary by state — confirm wage-hour questions with the U.S. Department of Labor or employment counsel, tax questions with a tax advisor, and staff qualification rules with your state child care licensing agency.