What do compensation policies and advocacy strategies that prioritize equity look like? Recent state efforts, such as paying bonuses and developing salary scales, can perpetuate inequities or create new ones in the workforce – especially for those who are already marginalized by existing policies, such as BIPOC educators, home-based providers, and infant-toddler teachers. How state leaders develop these strategies can also be inequitable if they don’t meaningfully engage early childhood educators.

Participants in this session reflected on the extent to which policies implemented or proposed in two states increase equity within the ECE workforce, what they could have done better, and what advocates in all states can do to advance more equitable strategies in the future.