I was hired at a local daycare a few months ago as a teacher. They require a degree to work here, which is fair, but they absolutely don't pay enough to live in the area. Most teachers, even new hires, get $12-13/hr, which adds up before taxes to be about $24,000 per year. The poverty line here is about $20,000, which would be like $10/hr before tax. I live in a city, and that's barely enough to pay for rent at like $1000 for a single bedroom or more for any higher number, maybe more like $8-900 a month if you're lucky for a shitty single bedroom.
Most of my coworkers have kids, and I don't- I'm only a couple of years out of college and don't plan on kids until I get some of this student debt down. I'm barely managing to pay for my living expenses plus my private and government loans, and I'm living with my partner and making $18/hr because I said I wouldn't take less than that (I had an offer elsewhere for at least $17 if not $18, plus it was closer to me). Apparently, the boss at the time got in trouble and was ultimately fired for hiring me at that high a rate. Huge corporate daycares don't like paying fair wages to the people making their childcare possible, apparently.
This doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the problems with my place of work, but poor pay in an inherently stressful and demanding job is the main reason we've hardly been able to keep anyone on the team in the few months I've been here. We're operating at less than half capacity for the size of our center because we can't keep teachers. Management has been promoted, hired from other sites, and shuffled several times since my start date. There's not really any trust in the two or three remaining management people, especially since there are supposed to be like 4 or 5 people in their positions instead of 2 or 3. One of them is mainly a teacher, but someone experienced had to help with some of the front office stuff.
Ive brought up the issue of pay with management several times and have been met with stone walls each time. Recently, though, when I said something like “No one wants to stay because they don't get paid enough and it's stressful on top of that,” someone who I thought was much kinder just said “Well, bye!” as if we're well-staffed and don't need them. I was shocked and have told other teachers about this in an attempt to stir them up and let them know I'm ready to quit or threaten to do so if wages aren't increased.
I've been trying to tell fellow employees to demand higher pay or walk, since there are lots of better paying jobs with fewer requirements and less stress. I just found out one of my favorite teachers left, along with my least favorite few, and many others with their feet halfway out the door. No one is interested in threatening to quit and demanding higher pay; they'd rather just cut ties, sometimes giving a two week notice. What do I do? Im ok with the job, but I get paid enough to care, while they don't, and they're usually far more qualified and experienced in childcare than myself. I'm in a unique position that isn't easily replaced, but they ALL deserve to make more money than I do, and need it more thanks to their kids and more expenses and bigger families. I've told some younger, newer hires to get to know everyone's wages and try to start demanding higher wages, and they largely agree with me, but I'm not close to most of the teachers since they're so new and keep quitting, understandably. In my first few months, SO many long time employees, sometimes there for decades, often very good at what they do, quit before it got this bad, but this is an absolute shit show. Are there daycare unions? Early Childcare Education unions? What else can I do to help the struggling families I work with so they get paid as much as me, or more?
Thanks for the help, to anyone who can offer advice.