Originally posted here on the Raising California Together blog
The Raising California Together coalition released the following statement today from Co-Chair Tonia McMillian, a child care provider from Bellflower, in response to the historic announcement of raising of California’s minimum wage:
“Child care providers have been a strong and vital part of the Fight for 15 that has changed the conversation about poverty in America and created the momentum for today’s historic agreement. We’re proud to have fought alongside the low-wage families we that serve to break a cycle of poverty that strains our families and holds our kids back from success. We know this raise is vitally important to the families we serve, though child care providers are excluded from minimum wage protections and won’t see the immediate benefit of this agreement. Still this agreement gives a significant boost to national efforts to combat poverty and our 2016 effort at the state level to achieve a wage we can raise our families on. We’ll be working through the legislature to help child care providers achieve the dignity of a $15 wage equivalent.”
Raising California Together is a broad coalition of child care providers, agencies, parents, educators, clergy and interfaith networks, unions, small businesses, women’s and children’s advocates, community groups, and public health organizations united to press for local, state, and national policy solutions to increase access to quality child care and early learning choices.
