The Exploitation of Black Daycare Workers

Black women are being exploited through the daycare industry. Faced with systemic oppression that has been built into the fabric of American society; these workers face the lowest pay, fewest workplace benefits and are given little to no resources to survive or be supported in the workplace. Universal childcare would allow Black women workers to escape the poverty trap of being childcare workers.

During slavery Black women took care of massa’s home; both domestic and care work. Once our ancestors were freed the role of Black women in society did not change. They would become domestic workers and/or care workers making pennies.

Claudia Jones created the theory of triple oppression of the Black woman worker. The Black woman faces oppression from the capitalist for being a worker, a Black person, and a woman; explained in her essay An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman!. The essay explains not only are they oppressed because they belong to each category but they are also the most oppressed from within each category. The Black woman is always exploited more than her Black and woman counterpart, and that makes them overall the most oppressed worker. This can explain why in a growing field that can’t be disrupted by AI, Daycare/pre-k workers fall within the bottom 5% of all occupational median wages in 2023.

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Daycare teachers earned around $15 an hour and pre-k teachers made a little less than $18 dollars an hour. 1/10 of these workers have retirement benefits and 23% have employer-sponsored health coverage. 53% of these workers rely on public benefits such as SNAP; this is twice as high as the general workforce.

The daycare system is a privatized market. That means that capitalist business owners run the system. They have oppressed their workers into financial instability + physical and mental burnout, all while creating a $65 billion industry. Off the backs of Black and brown women these capitalists have maximized profits. Capitalists will always abuse the oppressive system in order to gain more profit. We can stop them though!

We can stop this oppression through universal childcare. The public school system is a great example of how universal childcare would be better for the workers over the current privatized system. A pre-k teacher as stated earlier made a median hourly rate of less than $18 an hour (2023), but a kindergarten teacher who teaches children that are only a year older made a median of $32.80 an hour (2024).

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That is a life changing difference that is made possible because of federal/state guidelines and the teachers union. The kindergarten teacher is more likely to have access to benefits and only 21% will need to rely on public benefits; which is equal to the general workforce. Pre-k teachers are over twice as likely to need public benefits. Kindergarten teachers receive training and continuing education that pre-k teachers don’t receive. The public school system has many criticisms, but the difference in implementing a similar system to daycare and pre-k teachers would change their lives. The implementation would lift hundreds of thousands of Black women workers out of a life of instability and give them the proper resources to help raise and nurture the future of our society.

NYC is already rolling out their plans for universal childcare and want to make it state wide. We have the opportunity to get Black women out of the poverty trap that is currently early childcare and help families gain back a large portion of their income that is currently going towards childcare. For the ancestors, the working class and the children; GIVE US OUR FREE DAYCARE!

Stay woke,

Loc

Ko-fi

Blacksky

Sources:

Black Daycare Workers (by Loc) — Semble