Warren, Scott Urge Department of Defense to Urgently Increase Child Care Staff Pay to Address Staffing Challenges
“Congress and military families are counting on DoD to update its compensation model for direct care staff expeditiously so DoD can hire and retain more caregivers, and more military families can find the care they need”
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.), the chair and ranking member for the Senate Armed Services’ Personnel subcommittee, wrote to Department of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, urging the Department to increase child care staff pay to address staffing challenges and ensure military families have access to affordable, high-quality child care.
The Department of Defense’s 30-year-old child care program is the largest — and one of the strongest — employer-based child care systems in the country. However, the program’s outdated pay scale has created staffing shortages and long waitlists, barring many military families from taking advantage of this quality care. Senators Warren and Scott highlighted the unique role quality child care plays in military families’ lives.
“Two-thirds of active duty military families have children living at home and, like all families, need safe, reliable, and affordable child care so parents can go to work or school, and children can receive the long-term benefits of early education. Military families also face unique challenges finding child care due to non-standard work schedules, abrupt relocations, and long deployments—and if they cannot find child care, they may not be able to serve, harming military readiness and national security,” wrote the lawmakers.
The Department of Defense recently conducted a thorough review of its staffing and compensation model and put forward proposals to increase child care worker pay and address capacity challenges. In the new letter, Senators Warren and Scott applauded the Department’s review and pushed it to urgently increase pay for direct care staff to address staffing shortages and expand the number of military families able to take advantage of the Department’s affordable, high-quality care.
“(We) urge you to implement the revised pay scale as quickly as possible. Congress and military families are counting on DoD to update its compensation model for direct care staff expeditiously so DoD can hire and retain more caregivers, and more military families can find the care they need,” wrote the lawmakers.
Today, Senator Warren released a comprehensive report detailing her accomplishments across eight years on the Senate Armed Services Committee, including strengthening and improving military child care programs, specifically securing $37 million for child care construction funding for military families in Massachusetts and securing a proposal in the fiscal year 2025 Senate NDAA to address military child care staffing shortages. Read the full report here.
Senator Warren has long led efforts to invest in child care and other priorities for military families:
- In May 2024, Senator Warren wrote to the Department of Defense (DoD) demanding answers for how DoD planned to address allegations of child abuse in DoD Child Development Centers (CDCs).
- In May 2024, Senator Warren led an annual hearing highlighting personnel priorities for the Department of Defense and the military services for the coming year, specifically reiterating her call for fiscal reforms at DoD that would lower costs and free up room for investments in other priorities like military child care.
- In August 2023, Senators Warren, Scott (R-Fla.), and Budd (R-N.C.) sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, urging him to invest in further improving the DoD’s child care program.
- In March 2023, chairing a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Personnel, Senator Warren asked Gil Cisneros, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, about how DoD can help increase supply in its excellent child care programs and improve pay to better hire and retain child care workers.
- In February 2023, Senator Warren, along with Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) and over three dozen lawmakers, unveiled new legislation that would expand access to affordable child care to every American family, offer high-quality early education to every child, and create good jobs for our early educators. The Child Care for Every Community Act takes inspiration from DoD’s child care model.
- In February 2019, Senator Warren highlighted the Defense Department’s high-quality and affordable child care program in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.
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