Child Care Providers United, the union that represents more than 40,000 family child care providers in California, reached a historic two-year tentative agreement that will provide union members the largest pay increase in California history and a first-in-the-nation retirement plan.

The agreement, announced Friday, June 30, 2023, follows months of negotiations, rallies, marches, and vigils.

“Today child care providers have made history by standing together, strong and united, to demand the pay we are worth and the quality child care California’s children deserve,” Nancy Harvey, a child care provider in Oakland and member of CCPU’s bargaining team, said in a statement.

“Just hours before our first contract from 2021 was set to expire, and following months of negotiations and thousands of providers traveling through the night from every corner of the state to make their voices heard in the State Capital, we forged an agreement through 2025 that will deliver the largest increase in pay in the history of the state and set us on the path to finally be reimbursed for the full cost of providing care.”

“Providers marched and rallied in our local communities and all the way to Sacramento,” Zonia Sanchez, a family child care provider in Palmdale who was also on the bargaining team that negotiated the contract with the state, said in a statement.

“Gov. (Gavin) Newsom heard us. The agreement we reached with the state of California will have a big impact on child care providers and on the families and children we serve. It includes rate increases for providers and funding for retirement, health care, and training. It also finally puts us on track to earn wages that are based on our actual cost of providing child care. This will ensure that providers, like me, can keep doing the work we love, and more providers will want to enter the child care field.”

Highlights of the Tentative Agreement include the following:

  • A pathway to implement payment based on the actual cost of providing care
  • A subsidy rate increase per child 
  • $80 million for a historic first-of-its-kind retirement fund
  • Continued funding for the CCPU Health Care Reimbursement Fund and CCPU Training Fund
  • A two-year extension to payment by enrollment, not attendance
  • Lowered hours per week to qualify for full-time reimbursement

The contract will become final after union members and the state ratify the agreement.

Child Care Providers United is a partnership of Service Employees International Union, Local 99, Service Employees International Union, Local 521 and United Domestic Workers of America (UDW/AFSCME Local 3930.