Childcare Workers
Also called: After School Coordinator, After School Counselor, Attendant, Baby Attendant, Baby Sitter, Before and After School Daycare Worker, Boarding Mother, Care Provider
Attend to children at schools, businesses, private households, and childcare institutions.
What childcare workers do
Typical tasks
- Maintain a safe play environment.
- Observe and monitor children's play activities.
- Communicate with children's parents or guardians about daily activities, behaviors, and related issues.
- Support children's emotional and social development, encouraging understanding of others and positive self-concepts.
- Care for children in institutional setting, such as group homes, nursery schools, private businesses, or schools for people with disabilities.
- Sanitize toys and play equipment.
- Dress children and change diapers.
- Keep records on individual children, including daily observations and information about activities, meals served, and medications administered.
- Identify signs of emotional or developmental problems in children and bring them to parents' or guardians' attention.
- Instruct children in health and personal habits, such as eating, resting, and toilet habits.
- Organize and store toys and materials to ensure order in activity areas.
- Perform general administrative tasks, such as taking attendance, editing internal paperwork, and making phone calls.
Typical path into the job (BLS)
Childcare Workers salary
The median annual wage for childcare workers is $34,980 (BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025–35, national). The lowest 10 percent earn less than $24,260 and the highest 10 percent earn more than $46,010. The mean annual wage is $35,030.
The mean hourly wage of $16.00 is 2.2× the federal minimum wage of $7.25. State minimums are higher in most large states. Minimum wage by state →
How does your pay compare with people your age?
Your numbers are not sent or stored. The comparison uses this occupation's BLS wage percentiles, adjusted for age with BLS median weekly earnings by age group (Q3 2026).
Pay by percentile
Annual wage percentiles from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). Percentiles are a good proxy for pay by experience.
Projected pay for Childcare Workers (3, 5 and 10 years)est.
Today $34,980 → in 3 years $38,200 → in 5 years $40,500 → in 10 years $46,800 (10-year range $40,300–$54,300). The model assumes pay growth of +2.9% per year.
What drives the annual growth rate
Projected pay = current pay × (1 + annual growth)^years. The annual growth rate starts from a base wage-growth rate and adds or subtracts labor demand (BLS projected employment growth), wage momentum and AI replacement risk for each occupation. Projections are not guarantees. How it is calculated →
Outlook score for Childcare Workers
Each component is a percentile rank among all occupations in the same country (0–100). Weights: labor demand 25, wage momentum / openings 15, pay level 15, AI resistance 25, aging workforce 10 (Japan only), entry barrier 10.
Will AI replace Childcare Workers? AI replacement risk
How AI is changing this job
A written analysis for this occupation is being prepared.
AI replacement risk compares the parts of a job that are easy to hand to AI or software (processing information, documentation, repetitive computer work) with the parts that are hard to automate (physical work, working closely with people, judgment in unpredictable settings), using O*NET work activities, work context, skills and knowledge. The result is a relative position among all occupations in the country, scaled to 0–100%. Methodology →
Labor demand for Childcare Workers
Employment projections are from the BLS Employment Projections program (2025–35). Annual openings include both new jobs and replacement of workers who leave the occupation.
The same job in Japan
| Childcare Workers United States | 学童保育指導員 Japan | ベビーシッター Japan | 保育補助者 Japan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median / average pay | $34,980 | ¥4.03M ≈ $25,607 | ¥4.03M ≈ $25,607 | ¥4.03M ≈ $25,607 |
| Pay in 10 years (est.) | $46,800 | ¥5.45M | ¥5.68M | ¥5.45M |
| Outlook score | 48 | 57 | 65 | 58 |
| AI replacement risk | 16% Very low | 9% Very low | 12% Very low | 9% Very low |
| Workers | 519K | — | — | — |
Matched by occupation (SOC code). Yen converted at 157.25 JPY/USD for reference; Japanese figures are averages, U.S. figures are medians, and the surveys define occupations differently.
Skills, education and requirements for Childcare Workers
Key skills
O*NET skill level ratings (0–7).
Key knowledge areas
What the work involves
Important abilities
Education of workers
Training before entry
Related work experience
Job Zone 2 — some preparation needed (O*NET)
Difficulty of entry: ★☆☆☆☆ Easy to enter (from education, training, experience and Job Zone)
How to become childcare workers
A step-by-step guide for this occupation is being prepared. The education, training and experience data above show the typical path.
Career path and how to earn more as childcare workers
Career-path guidance is being prepared. Pay by percentile is shown in the Pay section.