Find Out if You’re Eligible for Wage Supports

Wage Supports for Early Childhood Educators offers payments to staff at eligible child care programs. Get an overview of the program.

This page outlines how program administrators can make sure their programs and staff are eligible to receive funding.

Programs that are eligible 

• Licensed child care centers
• Licensed group child care homes
• Licensed family child care homes
• All license-exempt programs that receive School Readiness and/or CDC funding

Note that your program is still eligible if you have an open case in any legal or enforcement actions. 

Your program is not eligible if:

• It doesn’t have a license
• It has a pending application for a license — you must have an active license by February 15, 2023 to be eligible
• Its child care license has been revoked

Staff who are eligible 

To be eligible, staff must:

• Have been employed by your program when you applied and listed on the application
• Spend 50% or more of their time supporting OEC-regulated classrooms or programs

Other requirements depend on the type of program. 

Requirements for licensed child care centers and group child care homes

Staff must be  either:

• Regularly scheduled staff members who provide direct service to children
• Supervisors of staff  who provide direct service to children (such as a site administrator, lead teacher, education manager, program director, family service coordinator) who also:
  • Work with teachers or parents regularly
  • Do not have an individual gross salary above $100,000 per year

Requirements for licensed family child care homes

Eligible staff include any regularly scheduled staff member who provides direct service to children who is either:

• An OEC-approved substitute or assistant
• The family child care owner

Requirements for license-exempt programs that receive School Readiness or CDC Funding

All eligible staff must work in or be assigned to a classroom that receives School Readiness or CDC funding.

Types of staff that are eligible are either:

• Regularly scheduled staff members who provide direct service to children
• Supervisors of people who provide direct service to children (such as site administrator, lead teacher, education manager, program director, family service coordinator) who also:
  • Work with teachers or parents regularly
  • Do not have an individual gross salary above $100,000 per year

Staff who are not eligible

• Staff who were hired after the program applied for Wage Supports
• Staff who were fired for cause (you must use this money for the salaries of other eligible staff)
• Volunteers, substitutes, or others  who are not on payroll or employed by the program
• Contractors (like hired-out bus drivers, janitorial crew from an external cleaning company, health consultants, and education consultants) 
• Supervisors who earn more than $100,000 per year