Ontario NDP Says They'll Set $25 An Hour Wages For Some Child Care Workers If Elected

Wages for some child care workers could start at $25 an hour if the NDP gets elected in Ontario's upcoming elections.

On Tuesday, April 12, Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath announced that the party will bring $25-an-hour starting wages for all registered early childhood educators in the province if elected. The NDP will also set wages to $20 per hour for all other child care program staff.

The party says Horwath will also work with child care advocates and unions to create and implement a Workforce Strategy that will lead to decent work standards, like benefits, pensions and support for workers in this field to upgrade their qualifications.

"Making child care $10 per day is absolutely critical for families — but there's no child care without child care workers. It's already hard to find a child care space, and we'll need thousands more spaces when we finally make child care affordable for all families," Horwath said in the announcement.

Recently, the Ford government struck a deal with the feds that is expected to cut child care fees to $10 a day by 2025.

"Ford is moving ahead with a wage floor of just $18 per hour for registered early childhood educators working in child care," the NDP said.*

Minister of Education Stephen Lecce said in the legislature on April 12 that the Ontario government would start wages at $18 an hour, with supervisors earning $20 an hour.

"What we can commit to doing is increasing wages by $1 each year to $25 over the course of this mandate," Lecce said.

"We are hiring more ECEs to support families."

Ontario's NDP has promised to raise general minimum wage rates to $20 an hour by 2026 and also promised free universal mental health care if they get elected in this year's provincial elections.

Ontarians can hit the polls on election day on June 2.

*This article has been updated.