Montana’s Child Care Crisis: Workforce Solutions Are the Key to Progress
Finding and affording child care is challenging across Montana. Many families face severely limited options for child care and ultimately pay high costs when they do find care, particularly for infants and toddlers. This report is third in a series analyzing Montana’s child care system. In the first report, “Policy Basics: The Best Beginnings Scholarship,” we provide an in-depth analysis of the current landscape for accessing and affording child care and how the Best Beginnings Scholarship is an opportunity to support families and providers. The second report, “On Unsteady Ground: Infant and Toddler Child Care Needs Stability,” provides a closer look at the heightened challenges for infant and toddler child care.
As Montana leaders work to build a child care system that works for families and providers, strategies and solutions must include the child care workforce. Covering child care for child care workers is a proven strategy to support child care workers and improve recruitment and retention.
Lack of Affordable and Accessible Child Care Impacts Everyone in Montana
Child care impacts us all in Montana. Parents of young children who struggle to find and afford care are often left with difficult decisions about staying in the workforce or continuing education. Career sacrifices that parents make to accommodate child care disproportionately affect women. Mothers of young children in Montana are less likely to be in the workforce, with 30 percent of women with young children not in the workforce compared to 4 percent of men with young children.[1] When parents struggle to find care, it impacts businesses and the broader economy.
Child care impacts children directly. Early childhood is a critical window of time for children’s development.[2] Positive learning experiences and nurturing relationships, like those found in high-
quality programs, help young children set a strong foundation for future growth and learning.
The child care workforce underscores all of these impacts. For young children, the relationship a child has with their caregiver matters the most when considering quality, meaning a stable and skilled child care workforce is a key part of high-quality care.[3] Unfortunately, child care workers in Montana do not earn wages that reflect the value of their caregiving work, resulting in difficulty recruiting and retaining a child care workforce. Unless efforts specifically address the shortfalls in the child care workforce, the child care system will continue to struggle to meet the needs of all who depend on it.
Parents Alone Cannot Pay What High-Quality Care Costs
Parents alone cannot bear the full cost of high-quality care. For example, a typical center would need to charge $41,532 per year for an infant for the true cost of high-quality care, including paying staff higher wages and offering benefits and time off.[4] A typical family-based program would need to charge $31,428 for the true cost of high-quality care. That is three to four times the cost of in-state tuition at Montana State University ($9,440 per year).[5]
If providers charged what it truly costs to offer high-quality care, no one would be able to attend their programs. Instead, providers lower their prices to what parents can just barely afford. To make up the difference, providers cut staff wages and benefits, resulting in high staff turnover rates. Without more significant investment in the child care system, and specifically in the child care workforce, low wages will persist.
The Child Care Workforce Is Critical to Montana
The early childhood workforce lives and works in communities all across Montana, providing essential care and education that supports families and builds a strong foundation for our youngest residents. In May 2026, 4,276 people worked in direct care roles for child care and early childhood education across the state, according to the Montana Early Childhood Project, a statewide registry that allows workers to track professional development and credentials.[6] Montana’s child care workforce is disproportionately female (96 percent vs. 47 percent of all workers) and BIPOC (19 percent vs. 14 percent of all workers), underscoring the need to focus on equity as part of conversations on the child care workforce.[7] Low wages have plagued the child care industry for decades, due to limited public funding and because policies and practices have undervalued caregiving.
The median wage for child care workers in Montana was $16.89 per hour in 2025.[8] Annual median wage estimates for child care workers hovers around $35,000 per year. These low wages make it difficult to recruit and retain a child care workforce and do not begin to recognize and value child care workers who support families and strengthen communities in our state.
Child care workers have shouldered the burden of inadequate funding by working low-wage jobs for decades. Parents have also shouldered the burden of inadequate funding by making difficult decisions to leave the workforce when child care becomes too unaffordable, missing out on lost wages, career advancement, and education opportunities. Women disproportionately bear the responsibility for caregiving of family members, and over the course of a lifetime, women specifically lose $295,000 in income and retirement savings to provide family care.[9] Inadequate funding for child care also means children bear part of the burden when high-quality care is inaccessible and limited. High turnover for child care staff directly impacts the relationships and quality of care children receive. Meaningful public investment is needed to shift the burden away from children, parents, and child care workers.
In a recent survey of child care workers, more equitable pay was listed as the most important benefit, with 88 percent saying it was important or very important.[10] Professional development opportunities (84 percent) and paid time off (83 percent) are also important to child care workers.
Child Care Work Is Chronically Undervalued, Impacting BIPOC and Women the Most
The reality of today’s child care profession has been shaped by decades of policies and public perception that devalued the role of caring for young children. For example, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 excluded domestic, agricultural, and service occupations.[10] This exclusion reflects a policy decision that overlooked the value of caregiving work, despite the expertise and contributions of women, particularly BIPOC women, who have long been leaders in domestic and caregiving roles. Black women who were enslaved were forced to provide unpaid labor, including many domestic and caregiving tasks.[14] For American Indian families, the Civilization Fund Act of 1819 created boarding schools designed to assimilate American Indian people into white patriarchal culture.[14] Boarding schools focused education for girls on domestic skills alongside forced labor, abuse, and stripping American Indians of their culture that more largely focused on communal life.[14] After the end of slavery, education and training opportunities for women of color in the early 20th century were almost exclusively focused on domestic skills, leaving very few options besides domestic work for women of color.[12]
Federal funding for child care ebbed and flowed throughout the 1900s. Child care funding sometimes flourished, like during World War II, when more women entered the workforce as men were away.[15] In 1971, Congress passed the Comprehensive Child Development Act with bipartisan support, which would have created substantial and universal support for child care, but was ultimately vetoed as a result of backlash from anti-feminist groups who wanted to maintain gendered family roles.[15] The examples of policies and public perception go on and on throughout history and set a precedent for undervaluing caregiving as a skilled and essential role to society and the economy. This legacy directly shapes the present-day reality of an underpaid and undervalued child care workforce.
Key Policy Strategy for Child Care Workers: Cover Child Care
A federal grant allowed Montana to implement a pilot program, the Montana Child Care Worker Program, which expanded eligibility for a Best Beginnings Scholarship to child care staff if they earned less than 250 percent of the federal poverty level for their entire household (about $66,000 for a family of three).[13] The pilot ran from October 2023 through December 2025. During the pilot, 280 child care providers participated, and 141 workers and 246 children received a scholarship through the expanded eligibility category.[14] An additional 268 workers and 498 children participated who were already eligible under the existing income limit of 185 percent of the federal poverty level.
The pilot demonstrated promising results for worker retention. Over the grant period, 52 percent of all child care workers statewide left their positions, compared to just 24 percent of workers participating in the pilot. Nearly all participating providers (92 percent) viewed the program as beneficial, and 90 percent of workers reported that the program played a significant role in their decision to stay in their jobs.
For child care workers with young children, the cost of care can make staying in the workforce financially unsustainable. A child care worker earning the median wage and working full time would spend 86 percent of their income on center-based care for an infant and a 4-year-old.[15] Some child care providers cover these costs themselves when employees do not qualify for Best Beginnings, using this benefit to recruit and retain staff. Public investment in child care for child care workers could relieve this financial pressure on both employees and providers, potentially freeing up resources that providers could use to increase wages for their entire workforce.
Montana should build on the pilot’s promising results by establishing a permanent, statewide child care worker retention program, regardless of income. An estimated 1,848 child care workers in Montana have children ages birth through 12 and could potentially benefit from this investment.[16] By making child care more affordable for the people who provide it, Montana can help retain experienced workers, strengthen child care businesses, and support the stability of the state's child care system.
Fixing the Child Care System in Montana Requires Investing in the Child Care Workforce
More state investment in the child care workforce is needed to make significant shifts in recruiting and retaining staff and raising wages. A well-compensated and stable child care workforce will improve access and affordability for families, as more programs can remain open or expand their current capacity.
ENDNOTES
[1] Data represents responses pooled from 2020-2024 and includes adults ages 25 to 54. IPUMS-CPS, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org.
[2] Schoch, A., Gerson, C., Halle, T., Bredeson, M., “Children’s Learning and Development Benefits from High-Quality Early Care and Education: A Summary of the Evidence,” Aug. 2023.
[3] Shonkoff J., Phillips, D., “From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development,” National Research Council and Institute of Medicine Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development, 2000.
[4] Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center, “Prenatal-to-3 State Policy Roadmap 2026, Child Care Subsidies,” Sep. 29, 2026.
[5] Montana State University, “Estimated Expenses, 2026/2027.”
[6] Early Childhood Project, “Montana Workforce Data Request,” MAC information request, received June 8, 2026, on file with author.
[7] Population Reference Bureau analysis of U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample, 5-year estimates, 2020-2024, on file with author.
[8] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “May 2025 State Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, Montana,” accessed on Oct. 1, 2026.
[9] Johnson, R., Smith, K., Butrica, B., “What Is the Lifetime Employment-Related Cost to Women of Providing Family Care?,” Urban Institute, May 2023.
[10] Department of Public Health and Human Services, “Bright Futures B-5 Program, Early Childhood Family and Service Provider Survey,” Early Childhood and Family Support Division, March and April 2024, on file with author.
[11] Lloyd, C., Carlson, J., Barnett, H., Shaw, S., Logan, D., “Mary Pauper: A Historical Exploration of Early Care and Education Compensation, Policy, and Solutions,” Child Trends, Sep. 2021.
[12] Vogtman, J., “Undervalued A Brief History of Women’s Care Work and Child Care Policy in the United States,” National Women’s Law Center, 2017.
[13] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “2025 Poverty Guidelines” 48 Contiguous States,” accessed Oct. 1, 2026.
[14] Department of Public Health & Human Services, “Child Care Worker Program,” on file with author.
[15] A child care worker earning the median wage and working full time earns $35,131. The average cost of an infant ($15,476) and 4-year-old ($14,676) at a center is $30,152. Child Care Aware of America, “Child Care Affordability Analysis, Child Care in America: 2025 Price & Supply,” May 13, 2026.
[16] IPUMS USA, University of Minnesota, American Community Survey 2020-2024 sample.
Comments