New Minimum Wage Survey for WA Child Care Providers (English)

Initiative 1433 Survey Questions for ECE Educators

Child Care Aware of Washington wants to know how the minimum wage initiative will impact your child care small business. We want to share this information with policymakers during the 2017 Legislative Session. We will share this information (no personal information, just survey data) with you, the child care and early learning field, child care champions, and, most importantly, legislators. This information will be critical to all of us who want to fight for greater support for child care providers and families in WA!

Initiative 1433 was approved by WA State voters last November. It will raise the state minimum wage to $13.50 by 2020, and requires employers to offer paid sick leave. The minimum wage will increase to:

·        $11/hr in 2017

·        $11.50/hr in 2018

·        $12/hr in 2019

·        $13.50/hr in 2020

·        Beginning in 2021, the minimum wage will be adjusted with inflation, according to existing state law

Starting in 2018, WA businesses must provide paid sick leave to their employees. At minimum, employees must receive one hour of sick leave for every 40 hours worked, up to 40 hours of paid leave per year. Employees can start using paid sick leave after 90 days with a business, and unused sick leave must roll over to the following year.

Please answer the following eight questions:

Question Title

* 1. What type of child care program do you operate? (Check all that apply.)

Licensed family child care provider

Licensed child care center

ECEAP

Head Start

Early Head Start

Serve families on Working Connections Child Care

Licensed exempt program

Tribal certified program

Military program

Other (please explain)

Comments

Question Title

* 2. How will Initiative 1433 (which raises the state minimum wage, starting in January 2017) impact the operating costs of your program?

Will not increase operating costs

Will somewhat increase operating costs

Will significantly increase operating costs

Other (please explain)

Comments

Question Title

* 3. How will Initiative 1433 (which raises the state minimum wage, starting in January 2017) impact staff wages for your program?

Will not increase staff wages

Will increase wages for less than half of my staff

Will increase wages for more than half of my staff

Other (please explain)

Comments

Question Title

* 4. How will you deal with the impact of Initiative 1433? (Check all that apply.)

I will not have to make any major changes

Raise rates for families

Reduce staff

Reduce hours/benefits for staff

Serve fewer families on WCCC

Drop out of Early Achievers/Serve no families on WCCC

Reduce costs elsewhere (please explain)

Other (please explain)

Comments

Question Title

* 5. Have you discussed these program changes with your families? What will the impact be on them?

There will be no major changes that will affect them

I have discussed it with them, and they will be impacted (please explain)

I have not discussed this with my families

Parents have communicated to me the following ways they will be impacted by Initiative 1433 outside of my program (please explain)

Comments

Question Title

* 6. Would you be interested in advocating this legislative session for greater support for child care providers? Advocacy activities include: contacting your legislators, encouraging your families to do the same, meeting with legislators to share your story, writing a “letter to the editor” for your local paper, attending a town hall meeting, and more. If you are interested, please mark all that you’re interested in:

I want to advocate for better compensation for child care providers

I want to advocate for higher reimbursement rates for providers through Working Connections Child Care

I want to advocate for better access to Working Connections Child Care for families

I want to advocate for all of the above

I do not want to advocate this year

Question Title

* 7. If you checked any of the advocacy activities above, please provide your contact information.

Name

Company

Address

Address 2

City/Town

State/Province

ZIP/Postal Code

Email Address

Phone Number

Question Title

* 8. Do you have a personal story that demonstrates the problems with low reimbursement rates and minimum wages in child care? Please share your story with us. We will try to share it with legislators on your behalf!