Early childhood educators and assistants in Manitoba will receive a wage increase for the second year in a row. The federal and provincial governments will allocate $56.1 million from the Canada-Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care Agreement to increase starting salaries for child-care workers in regulated facilities focused on children under the age of seven. The wage increase aims to bolster recruitment and retention efforts in the sector, which has faced labour market shortages for years. Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Wayne Ewasko acknowledged the importance of the work of early childhood educators and said that the wage increase would recognize their crucial role.
The federal government will contribute $52.8 million, while Manitoba will provide another $3.3 million to support wage increases for staff who work with children aged seven to 12. The wage increases will take effect in July. Ewasko did not provide details of the hourly pay rate for different designations, but he suggested that the latest increase combined with last year’s would result in an 18% raise for those starting out in the sector.
The creation of an early learning and child-care wage grid last year provided a wage framework and targets for different early childhood educator classifications. Manitoba hopes that the wage grid will encourage child-care facilities to work towards an average staff wage by July 2024. Camie Rettaler, a Level 3 early childhood educator, said that it was common knowledge that early childhood educators have been underpaid, and the wage gap has caused a labour shortage in the sector. She believes that the additional wage increases this year will help retain staff and attract more.
Manitoba is planning to hire a consultant to conduct market research on wage grid examples elsewhere and come up with a broader implementation plan. The province has also allocated $2.1 million for four early childhood care centres, including $662,000 for the René Deleurme Centre, to implement the Abecedarian Approach to early childhood learning. This method, developed in the U.S. in the early 1970s, focuses on building language skills to foster cognitive, social, and emotional development, and improve reading and math skills. Ewasko said that the approach had proven particularly beneficial for children in high-risk communities.