When program budgets do not provide adequate compensation, children suffer the consequences. Such indifference is apparent in many ways. Unlike other industrialized nations with generous children's allowances, paid parental leave, and universal access to quality preschool programs, the United States offers none of the above. Even with the expected federal expansion of assistance for child care and early education, total need for high-quality services will remain far from met. As a nation, we historically have placed less value on any type of work done for or with young children.
Pediatricians earn less than other types of physicians.
The problems are especially pervasive among early childhood professionals employed in preschool and child care centers or self-employed as family child care providers. The fact that families are expected to bear the costs of preschool and child care services with limited assistance from public and private sectors further attests to the lack of value assigned to such programs. What parents, even in upper-income families, typically pay is far below actual cost, especially when adequate compensation is figured into the equation. As a result of the undervaluing of their work, early childhood professionals are caught in a vicious cycle. When a service is undervalued, its providers are inadequately compensated.