With funding from Women and Gender Equality Canada we are undertaking a 30 month project to advance a competitive provincial ECE wage grid, which is key to achieving a well-educated, fairly paid and respected ECE profession.

With input and advice from a range of equity-seeking groups across BC, including Indigenous colleagues, the project team is partnering with the Early Childhood Educators of BC and Pacific Immigrant Resources Society to engage ECEs in advocating for the full implementation of a provincial ECE wage grid of at least $30–$40 per hour, in order to achieve the high quality $10aDay child care system that families and our economy need.

Through this project we're working to advance pandemic recovery, gender equality, and a broader paradigm shift where we respect young children and the professionals who support their early care and learning.

What's a wage grid?

A wage grid is a type of scale where wages go up based both on qualifications/nature of the position (Levels), and other factors like years of service (Steps).

In 2020, our Next Step report (published with ECEBC) confirmed that a comprehensive wage grid is the best option to achieve fair ECE wages, and that effective wage grids prioritize:

• Competitive wages to recruit and retain qualified educators;
• Higher wages for ECEs with more qualifications and experience;
• Wages that increase over time, keep pace with inflation, and close the gender pay gap; and
• Integrated policy that recognizes and funds child care as a system.

The BC government has committed to develop and implement an ECE wage grid, both in its 2021 Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement with the federal government, and in the recent mandate letter of BC’s Minister of State for Child Care. With this commitment in mind, the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC and ECEBC released a July 2023 study showing that:

1. BC has fallen behind – In terms of Canada-wide progress toward an ECE wages and wage grids. Six other provinces now have ECE wage grids, and effective minimum ECE wages in BC are amongst the lowest in the country. 

2. To be competitive and effective, wages in BC’s promised grid now need to be at least $30–$40/hour – Depending on things like qualifications, position, experience and years of employment.

We have also developed a Q&A on Educator Wages in British Columbia, available here (published August 2022, so some of the figures are now out of date).

Project Advisory Committee

We, the Wage Grid Advisory Committee, acknowledge that we gather to do our work from the various traditional and unceded territories of the First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. We recognize the rights and importance of Indigenous people's connection and protection of the land, water and community. We thank the various Indigenous nations who continue to live on these lands and care for them, along with the waters and all that is above and below. We hold our hands up to the stewards of the lands, waters and sovereign nations whose territories where we each live on. We acknowledge our responsibilities to care for the lands which we inhabit as settlers.

Updated July 2023

The Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC gratefully acknowledges the support of Women and Gender Equality Canada.