Photo credit: Marla Maritzer

New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. joins the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) at a news conference calling on the New York City Administration for Children's Services to comply with Federal regulations regarding home child care providers' pay on December 21, 2008. Pictured (l to r) are: New York City Council Member Bill de Blasio; Thompson; Randi Weingarten, President, UFT; and, Bertha Lewis, Chief National Organizer, ACORN.

Released December 21, 2008

New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. today called on the City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) to pay the City’s 28,000 home child daycare providers the wages they deserve as mandated by the State or risk losing State and Federal subsidies.

“The State has given New York City a December 31 deadline to stop defying Federal regulations and start paying home daycare providers the State-mandated raises they have been owed for more than a year,” Thompson said at news conference. “If we do not submit a plan to pay providers properly we risk losing all State and Federal reimbursement for child care subsidies, and that’s $40 million a month that we cannot afford to lose.”

Joining Thompson were United Federation of Teachers (UFT) President Randi Weingarten, dozens of providers, Councilman Bill de Blasio and ACORN Chief National Organizer Bertha Lewis.

“There is no good excuse for not paying these hard-working providers the raises they have been owed for 15 months now,” said UFT President Randi Weingarten. “Every other county in the State is paying providers the new State-mandated market rate, making New York City the only one not in compliance. The raises are required by Federal law, which means the City should quit stalling and pay our providers what they are entitled to under the law.”

“Providers play an important role in the lives of New York’s most vulnerable children,” said Tammie Miller, a registered family daycare provider and chair of the United Federation of Teacher’s home daycare providers’ chapter. “We care for, educate, and prepare our City’s most vulnerable children for school. We provide a stable and nurturing environment for children living in shelters and low-income or single-parent homes. And yet many providers are struggling each day to make ends meet. It is well past time that ACS pays us a worthy wage for our worthy work.”

“All daycare providers deserve to receive equal pay for equal work,” said State Assemblymen Adriano Espaillat. “The State has increased wages for daycare providers, yet the City has refused to obey that order. ACS must provide daycare providers with their full wages.”

“ACS’s financial challenges cannot be balanced on the back of home-based child care providers,” said Councilman Bill de Blasio. “These dedicated workers provide a vital service for tens of thousands of New York City children that we cannot afford to lose.”

“Family day care providers have one of the most important jobs in our city: raising our next generation,” said Bertha Lewis, ACORN Chief National Organizer. “At the same time, they are critical to helping working families in this economy find and keep jobs. Instead of being underpaid and undervalued, these providers deserve the raise they are owed. This has gone on too long. The City needs to step up and do the right thing for these providers, for the kids and families they care for, and for our entire city’s economic health.”

The providers, who care for thousands of City children in home settings, are among the lowest-paid workers in the metropolitan region. The average annual wage for providers in New York City is about $19,610. The federal poverty line for a family of four in 2004 was $18,850.

New York City providers are members of the UFT, the labor union representing the city’s public school educators and the largest union local in the nation with more than 200,000 members. The UFT, acting as the collective bargaining agent for City providers, is in contract talks with the New York State Office of Children and Family Services, which approved new rates for paying providers in October 2007.

Although the rates have been approved by the State and Federal governments, it is ACS that pays the providers and is refusing to honor the new rates in violation of Federal regulations and State mandates, making New York City the only region in the state that is not paying providers the market rate.

ACS Commissioner John Mattingly admitted during a December 17 hearing before the City Council Committee on General Welfare that his agency is violating federal regulations and State mandates by withholding the wage increases. He said the State’s one-time grant of $27 million is not enough to cover the increase, which he estimated would be as much as $53.4 million a year.

But New York State Office of Children and Family Services Executive Deputy Commissioner William T. Gettman Jr. sent a December 8 letter to City officials threatening to cut off the entire State and Federal subsidy – which amounts to a loss of about $40 million a month – if the City does not comply with the increase, which he says is required under Federal law.

The letter warned that unless a corrective action plan for paying the raises is received by December 31, 2008, “all state and federal reimbursement to ACS for child care subsidies and the associated administrative costs will be withheld.”

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