Disrespected and undervalued

Early childhood educators say more will quit if things don’t change

Recent federal and provincial government efforts to improve early childhood education in Newfoundland and Labrador are alienating the very people needed for the initiatives to succeed: early childhood educators (ECES).

Saltwire Network spoke with several ECES in the St. John’s metro area on condition of anonymity because they feared that speaking candidly might affect their work.

They have different levels of certification, but they’ve all been in the field for a decade or more.

Their most pressing concern is a fear that the new wage grid will decrease their pay, but that’s more of a symptom of what they describe as overarching issues for ECES: feeling disrespected and undervalued by the government.

EFFECT OF PANDEMIC

Some ECES pinpointed the COVID-19 pandemic as a turning point for the worse.

“I’ve always felt underpaid and underappreciated, but since the beginning of COVID was when I really started to get upset,” one ECE said.

She said comments made about ECES during the COVID-19 briefings portrayed them as selfish, and as if they weren’t doing their part.

“We were actually mandated back without protective gear. So, I remember everybody was very upset about that. We felt like our lives weren’t even valued at that time because this was at the beginning when nobody knew anything about (the coronavirus) … and we were being forced to go work with children whose parents were in the hospitals and in high-risk environments, and we were being put there without any protection.”

She said there were comments made during the public-health news conferences that made it seem as if ECES didn’t want to go back to work, when in reality they simply wanted protection.

“From there on in it just all went downhill for the field. I think that was when it began that we started to lose the ECES, and then the lack of ECES in the workplace is what makes the work environment right now so challenging for the ECES that are there.”

Another ECE said she knows a lot of people who left the field during the pandemic because of the way they were treated by the government. She said they couldn’t take it any longer.

“It just wasn’t worth it anymore for them to be in this profession.”

ECES told Saltwire Network the current shortage means it’s hard to take time off, or to even get a bathroom break.

“There’s no staff to cover you,” one said.

WAGE GRID

One of the initiatives to attract more ECES is a new wage grid that the government says will increase wages. It was announced in 2021, and was expected to be completed by the end of 2022, with full implementation by 2023.

The date was pushed to April 1, with the assurance that the new wages will be retroactive to Jan. 1.

So far, only one number has been mentioned publicly: $25/hour for Level 2 ECES.

For experienced ECES, that sounds more like a pay decrease than an increase.

One ECE said it would mean earning thousands of dollars less per year.

“Who would keep working for a pay decrease?” another asked.

“I don’t know if the government doesn’t understand what we’re getting paid now. I don’t know where they came up with that number, but it’s not a reasonable number to put out there.”

She said $25 per hour will be a significant wage decrease for a lot of ECES.

“All these ECES that have been just struggling to stay in the field, it’s just going to push us out of there. … I’ve always felt underpaid and not respected, and now this just makes it so much worse.”

Another ECE said she’s worried because she has no idea what she’ll be earning in a couple of weeks’ time.

“If this was any other sector, there’d be people marching up and down the streets, and freaking out, and screaming.”

She said perhaps if they were unionized, they would be the case.

“But in my perspective, you spend 8 1/2 hours a day with kids — you don’t really have the energy to be up at Confederation Building picketing, yelling, and screaming. You’re tired at the end of the day.”

WOMEN’S WORK

Some of the ECES said many of these issues are rooted in the fact that the workers are predominantly women.

“I feel like because we are probably a 99.9 per cent female profession, we’re not respected. I feel terrible this day and age to make a comment like that, but I don’t know what other profession would be like this. So, I can’t think of any other reason besides that we’re a female-dominant profession that we’re being treated like this by government,” said one ECE.

Maria Gentle is executive director at YWCA St. John’s. The YWCA has been a key advocate for improvements to early childhood education.

She said affordable childcare is a move in the right direction.

“The next part is what is the value of a low-cost daycare if these spaces for daycare are not accessible? And then the other advocacy part is what is the incentive for folks to engage in early childhood education, or to open childcare, when the costs are so marginal and so slim, and when working in that field has limited economic benefits? So, I think it’s about gender equity, about valuing gendered labour, and valuing gendered labour in terms of ensuring that the field is resourced, and well-resourced.”

‘BOTTOM OF THE BARREL’

Saltwire asked ECES what would improve the situation.

They said their pay needs to be increased in a way that is meaningful, so they can see the difference it is making in their lives.

“Many ECES are working two jobs just to pay bills, just to survive. We need some kind of pay increase that we can actually feel — not a dollar an hour that by the time you get taxed you don’t even notice that you’ve got anything. We need to see some kind of significant pay raise, and I think we need to feel valued.”

They also said the wage grid needs to account for not just certification level, but years of experience.

All of them said they have felt excluded from the entire process of creating the wage grid. Other than a survey that was sent out a few months ago with no follow-up, they have not been part of the discussion about their own wages, they said.

“They don’t think of us as professionals. They think we’re the bottom of the barrel,” one ECE said.

One ECE said they should have been the first people consulted on the wage grid, and not just with a survey, but face to face. She said if politicians heard directly from ECES about the work they do, they would probably respect it a lot more.

Saltwire asked one ECE to describe her typical workday. She wakes up at 5:30 a.m. “I can’t wait to get to work,” she said.

Once there, she runs the breakfast program. She said a lot of planning goes into the childrens’ activities each day, whether that be outdoor play, or indoor activities, such as painting or baking. She spends her lunch break planning the next day.

“We don’t stop.”