VERONA – Governor Josh Shapiro and Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis joined child care workers, legislators, and community leaders in Allegheny County to highlight child care investments secured in the 2025-26 budget the Governor signed last month. These investments will help Pennsylvania recruit and retain child care workers, expand access to quality care, and ensure more parents can stay in the workforce and provide for their families. Pennsylvania’s child care industry currently has 3,000 unfilled jobs – openings that, if filled, would allow providers to serve 25,000 additional children. Providers continue to struggle with low wages that make it hard to hire and retain qualified staff, forcing them to close classrooms and turn families away. To address workforce shortages and expand child care availability, the 2025-26 budget establishes a $25 million Child Care Staff Recruitment and Retention Program, which will provide roughly $450 annually per employee to licensed Child Care Works (CCW) providers. These bonuses will support approximately 55,000 child care workers statewide and help stabilize the child care sector. Gov. Shapiro said, “When parents can’t find affordable, reliable care, they can’t work – and our entire economy feels it.”
