Author: Anne Vilen
“Family child care providers are undervalued all over the nation, even though our work is in great demand,” says Bhavini Patel, who cares for up to 12 children in her Kirkland, Washington, home. Families can’t afford child care, and child care providers can’t afford to stay in business.
King County administrators are trying to address this dilemma with a new Best Starts for Kids Child Care Wage Boost Pilot. Approved by county voters in 2024 the Best Starts for Kids Initiative invests more than $25 million in tax dollars to pay enrolled licensed child care providers up to $8,320 a year in additional income.
King County which includes Seattle, along with more suburban and rural areas, is home to more than 2 million residents but just 1,929 licensed home-based family child care providers, according to Child Care Aware of Washington. Those family child care homes serve thousands of children, ages 0-5, but there is still a huge shortage of licensed caregivers. Washington ranks 3rd in the nation for having the least affordable child care program options for infants.
According to Wage Boost Program Manager Kalayaan Domingo, 789 home-based providers applied to participate in a three-year wage boost pilot. Sixty-seven of the eligible facilities (including Patel’s), employing 149 caregivers, were selected from a randomized digital lottery to receive quarterly payments of $1,040 for part-time workers and $2,080 for those who work more than 25 hours per week (66 child care centers or after-school programs, employing 705 workers, also received the boost).
More than half of the family home caregivers receiving the income boost have more than two years experience in child care; nearly 90% of the recipients are people of color. The first payments went out to recipients in April 2025. “Overwhelmingly the feedback on the experience of applying, enrolling, and receiving payments is positive,” says Domingo. “Workers are already using payments to support their everyday goals such as returning to school, paying down debt, and maintaining essential needs such as housing and transportation.”
The positive benefits to child care providers’ financial sustainability and their professional development affirm that a modest income boost helps home-based providers thrive. Similar benefits have been documented in other guaranteed income initiatives for child care providers (under the umbrella of the Thriving Providers Project) in New York City, Colorado, and Philadelphia.
José Garcia Molin and Queyli Rodriguez have been licensed to care for nine children in their SeaTac, Washington, home for just a year. The wage boost is helping them both build and sustain their business. Molin remarks that he used the first payment to catch up on bills and pay for medications he needs to take to stay healthy so he can take care of children. They also pay rent for the home where they have their business. Rodriguez enrolled in an Early Head Start training program that she wouldn’t otherwise have been able to afford.
A reliable income above and beyond what parents can pay for child care means much less financial stress for them. The families they serve “feel relieved and more secure that they won’t have to change providers or find other child care because we can’t stay open,” says Molin.
Patel has been caring for children for nine years and also works with the Imagine Institute to train and mentor other providers. The added income from the wage boost provided a cushion this summer when her program did not have full enrollment and will allow her to balance her work time among professional development, training other providers, and caring for kids. She spent some of the money, for example, on expenses to attend a national family child care conference. “If I take all of the quarterly payments together, that’s my property tax,” she says. “Every year property tax goes up, and I have to pay it. So this boost makes a huge difference. Because of the boost, even if my enrollment is low, I can still make ends meet.”
Patel, Molin, and Rodriguez all emphasize their hope that the Wage Boost program can be expanded to include more providers so that all caregivers in their area can benefit. Patel also worries that if the Wage Boost program disappears after three years, or if there’s a new lottery and this year’s recipients are no longer selected, the transition will be difficult. She’s heard that the many providers who applied this year, but weren’t selected are having a more difficult time hiring staff because they can’t afford to match the salary of staff in programs that do receive the wage boost.
As a learning partner in the Thriving Providers Project, Home Grown documents this feedback and will continue to provide thought partnership as the program rolls out. Home Grown also provides technical assistance to develop a benefits-education strategy that helps participants avoid losing access to public benefits due to increased income. The hope is that direct cash assistance pilots in a variety of locations around the country, like King County, will yield valuable data and qualitative feedback to demonstrate to state and local governments that they can innovate the ways child care providers are paid and thus stabilize the economic well-being of child care providers and strengthen the entire child care ecosystem.
“We need more and more people working in this field,” concludes Patel. “We need to be able to offer health insurance to our employees, and retirement to our employees. If I work at McDonald’s or Wendy’s, they are going to offer me those things and maybe pay me $20 an hour. As a small business owner, I can’t afford that, so it’s hard for me to find assistants.”
The wage boost makes it possible for child care providers like Molin, Rodriguez, and Patel to stay in business longer by providing a living wage to caregivers and stabilizing the child care supply for families.
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