SACRAMENTO, CA – The more than 40,000 family child care providers in California represented by Child Care Providers United (CCPU) today announced that after months of negotiations, rallies, marches and vigils, CCPU has reached a tentative contract agreement with the State of California. The following statement may be attributed to Nancy Harvey, a child care provider in Oakland and member of CCPU’s bargaining team:
“Today child care providers have made history by standing together, strong and united, to demand the pay we are worth and the quality child care California’s children deserve. Just hours before our first contract from 2021 was set to expire, and following months of negotiations and thousands of providers traveling through the night from every corner of the state to make their voices heard in the State Capital, we forged an agreement through 2025 that will deliver the largest increase in pay in the history of the state and set us on the path to finally be reimbursed for the full cost of providing care.
“Setting a new precedent for the nation, providers demanded retirement security and we won. The tentative agreement includes the nation’s first retirement fund for providers, a women of color led workforce who have worked back breaking jobs into their eighties because we couldn’t afford to pay our bills, much less save for the future. We’ll also see greater access to continuing education and training and continued access to health care funds.
“Our new contract creates greater certainty for California providers which will allow us to retain talent and attract new talent to the field, ultimately giving families more opportunities to receive the high quality care they can expect from their neighborhood family child care providers.
“The contract will become final after both CCPU’s membership and the state ratify the agreement later this summer. We look forward to a continued partnership with the State and Governor Newsom as we work towards the transition to reimbursing providers for the full cost of providing care.”
This agreement was made possible by the tireless work of child care providers who took time off of work for negotiations at all hours of the day and night. State legislators also helped advance conversations by prioritizing more than $1 billion in new child care investments in their state budget proposals and including significant reform to fees paid by families with children in the subsidy program.
Key provisions of the agreement:
- Close to $600 million over two years in rate increases (total percentages will become available in the next week as they’re calculated by region)
- $80 million ongoing per year retirement funding
- $100 million ongoing per year health care funding
- Additional funds for training and continuing education
- Two-year extension of payment by enrollment not attendance (also known as “hold harmless”)
- Changing the requirement for full time pay from 30 hours per week to 25 hours per week or more, better compensating providers for wrap-around care
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Child Care Providers United brings together more than 40,000 family child care providers across California and is a partnership of SEIU Local 99, SEIU Local 521, and UDW/AFSCME Local 3930.
