Child-care workers resist standardized wage cuts

COLUMBUS -- Family child-care workers who provide services through the state's subsidized child-care program are opposed to proposed administrative rule changes they say would cut their compensation.
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services is proposing rules that would change state reimbursements to some family child-care workers.
Currently, counties have the flexibility to create their own payment schedules and the proposal is a move to standardize the billing structure around Ohio, state officials said.
Child Care Workers Together, an organization fighting the rules on behalf of family child-care workers, says that under the proposed changes, some care providers could lose between $500 to $700 a month in income.
In Mahoning County, for example, the hourly rate paid to a day-care provider caring for one infant is $3.20. Watching one infant for a 50-hour week would earn the provider $160. However, under the proposal, the pay would be a flat $138 for the 50-hour week, which would be a $22 cut, opponents say.
For child-care providers caring for six children, that cut would translate into a $132 cut per week -- or about $528 per month.
Currently, about 80,000 children statewide are enrolled in the subsidized child-care program, Allen said.