Welcome to the Best Starts for Kids (BSK)
Wage Boost Pilot!

No longer accepting applications
Application timeline: February 10 to March 7

Learn about the Best Starts Child Care Wage Boost Pilot!

Check out the FAQs

SIGN UP AND ATTEND AN Info Session

 

FACILITIES INFO SESSIONS:
To learn more about facility eligibility and how to apply, register for an upcoming Facility Info Session.


INFO SESSION RECORDING:

 

HELPFUL TOOLS & RESOURCES

VIEW TOOLKIT PAGE
Download all handouts in various languages

IMPORTANT UPDATES

Best Starts is investing in the Child Care Wage Boost Pilot.
This wage boost will allocate approximately $5 million annually to provide a wage boost to selected child care workers, working with children ages birth to twelve in King County. This will contribute to a study to understand the impact of the wage boost on employee retention, continuity of care, and worker well-being.

Some King County child care workers to get pay boost in pilot program

King County will supplement the wages of some early childhood educators and child care providers up to about $8,300 annually through 2027. Many advocates argue that child care’s twin challenges — low wages for many providers and high costs for families — pose a fundamental math problem that requires more public dollars to solve. King County’s pilot program will examine what happens when the government supplements provider pay.

Read More »
February 24, 2025

NEWS: King County launches applications for Best Starts for Kids Child Care Worker Wage Boost Pilot

Today, Best Starts for Kids within the King County Department of Community and Human Services launched applications for the Best Starts Child Care Worker Wage Boost Pilot for child care providers in King County. The Wage Boost Pilot is a $25 million investment made possible through the Best Starts for Kids levy and is estimated to reach 1,400 child care workers in the region.   Child care workers provide essential care and early education with skill and expertise and remain some of the lowest paid workers. In King County, child care workers would need to see their salaries almost doubled to reach the living wage floor. These low wages contribute to high turnover, lack of

Read More »
February 10, 2025

Best Starts for Kids Child Care Wage Boost Pilot application is live!

Child care facilities can now apply to join the Best Starts Child Care Wage Boost Pilot. Applications close March 7.  Eligible facilities will be selected by lottery, and workers at selected facilities can enroll to receive a quarterly payment to increase their income through 2027. An estimated 1,400 child care workers will receive the Best Starts Wage Boost. Full-time workers will receive $2,080 quarterly and part-time workers will receive $1,040 quarterly. For more information, check out the Best Starts Wage Boost website: bskwageboost.imaginewa.org Best Starts is partnering with The Imagine Institute to design and lead the project and AidKit Inc, to administer the

Read More »
February 10, 2025
READ MORE NEWS & UPDATES

Attend these info-sessions to learn more about the Best Starts Child Care Wage Boost Pilot!

If you are a child care worker, child care employer, or if you just want to learn more: join one of the upcoming information sessions about the Best Starts Child Care Wage Boost Pilot!

Child care facilities in King County will be able to start applying February 10 to be a part of the pilot. …READ MORE

Boosting Support for Child Care Workers: The Best Starts for Kids Child Care Wage Boost Pilot

What is the Best Starts for Kids Child Care Wage Boost Pilot?
The Pilot is designed to increase the wages of child care workers in King County. This program aims to provide financial support to workers while improving worker retention and overall well-being. …READ MORE

Applications going live February 10 for the Best Starts for Kids Child Care Wage Boost Pilot!

Starting February 10, child care facilities in King County can apply to be a part of the Best Starts for Kids Child Care Wage Boost Pilot. Applications will close March 7.

Eligible workers at selected facilities will be issued quarterly payments to increase their income through 2027. …READ MORE

Announcing the Awardees for The Child Care Worker Wage Boost!

Child care workers are an essential workforce who keep our communities running. Child care provides developmental supports for babies and children and helps parents and caretakers get to work, to medical appointments and address other needs. …READ MORE

FAQs

BACKGROUND & OVERVIEW

The Best Starts for Kids Child Care Wage Boost Pilot is a new investment in the voter-approved Best Starts for Kids Levy in King County. The Pilot invests in a cohort of child care workers and seeks to demonstrate how government investments can benefit the child care sector, workers, families, and the community. The Best Starts Child Care Wage Boost Pilot invests over $25 million in additional compensation to an enrolled cohort of child care workers through 2027. The Pilot anticipates reaching 1,400 workers who receive additional compensation as a wage boost every three months that they remain in the Pilot.

The Pilot is a short-term project that demonstrates how government investment can benefit the child care sector. This demonstration of funds informs learnings about the child care workforce in King County to be shared with the broader community and King County policymakers.

The Best Starts Child Care Wage Boost Pilot invests over $25 million in additional compensation to enrolled child care workers through 2027. The Pilot anticipates reaching 1,400 workers who receive additional compensation as a wage boost every three months that they remain in the Pilot.

Licensed child care facilities in King County who meet minimum eligibility requirements (see eligibility requirements below) are invited to apply to participate in the Pilot. This Pilot will deliver additional compensation to eligible workers working at selected facilities. Facilities will be selected via lottery to ensure an open and fair process for selection. Once facilities are selected, workers will enroll in the Pilot. Workers enrolled in the Pilot will remain in the project for the duration of their employment, or through 2027, whichever comes first.

Eligible workers working an average of 25+ hours/week are considered full-time and will receive $2,080 quarterly. Employees working 10-24 hours/week on average are considered part-time and will receive $1,040 quarterly. We anticipate that Pilot participants will receive 12 quarterly payments over the course of the Pilot.

SELECTION & ELIGIBILITY

Facilities play a vital role in the Pilot to ensure funds are distributed to their employees, and facilities also help inform the impact of a wage boost on their workers and their continued care of children. The Pilot intends for workers and facilities to wholly benefit from an increase in wages. Applying the wage boost to all workers in a facility also minimizes the risk of pay inequities within individual facilities. For example, if some workers within a facility received a boost and others didn’t, this could contribute to wage gaps within the same facility. Applying as a facility supports all workers at a single site to receive the full benefits of a wage increase.

Facilities will be selected through a lottery. The enrollment lottery will be run after the application window has closed. The lottery will be run by a third party, AidKit Inc. Neither King County nor any of the other Pilot partners (The Imagine Institute, Uncommon Bridges, Urban Institute, or Cardea) will have influence on the outcomes of the lottery.

The lottery allots a percentage of wage boost slots for each King County Council District and for types of licensed care to ensure fair representation of the workforce both geographically and by number of workers across different types of care offered in King County. The percentage of wage boost slots was determined by the representation of licensed facilities within the MERIT workforce data. Wage boost slots will be filled in the lottery until the maximum amount of Pilot funds have been distributed. Facilities that are not selected in the lottery will be added to a waitlist, and enrollment will be determined if Wage Boost funds become available later. Facilities and workers on the waitlist are not guaranteed enrollment in the Pilot.

To be eligible for the Pilot, facilities must meet the following requirements:

  • Located in King County
  • Licensed and in good standing
  • Open, serving at least one child in care
  • Have a max licensed capacity of 175 children

Licensed facilities that have Head Start and ECEAP programs are eligible. However, facilities that are specifically just Head Start or ECEAP are not eligible.

To be eligible for the Pilot, workers at selected facilities must meet the following requirements:

  • Be at least 18 years of age
  • Work a minimum of 10 hours per week on average
  • Work in one of the following roles:
    • Center or Family Home Aide
    • Center or Family Home Assistant Teacher
    • School-Age Child Care Assistant
    • Center or Family Home Lead Teacher
    • School-Age Lead Staff or Group Leader
    • Center Program Supervisor
    • Center or School-Age Assistant Director
    • School-Age Site Coordinator
    • Center Director
    • School-Age Program Director
    • Family Home Owner
    • Other- Anyone who provides direct care of children or essential operations within the facility and is marked as “other” as classified in MERIT

Not eligible: Owner only roles, volunteers, unpaid interns, or contract workers

Eligible workers working an average of 25+ hours/week are considered full-time and will receive $2,080 quarterly. Employees working 10-24 hours/week on average are considered part-time and will receive $1,040 quarterly. We anticipate that Pilot participants will receive 12 quarterly payments over the course of the Pilot.

FOR FACILITIES

APPLICATION

Prior to applying, facilities must ensure that their employee records in MERIT are up to date and all employees have been confirmed by the facility representative. Details on how to confirm employees in MERIT will be included in planned information sessions. Technical Assistance will be provided to any facility needing support updating their MERIT records and can be reached at 206-492-5249 or by email at [email protected]

The application will include:

  • Name and role of the facility representative completing the application
  • Facility location and license number
  • Number of current employees in eligible roles listed in the eligibility section of this document
  • Number of current staff openings needed to meet full licensed capacity
  • Facilities with multiple physical locations will need to complete separate applications for each site
  • Center Program Supervisor
  • Center or School-Age Assistant Director
  • School-Age Site Coordinator
  • Center Director
  • School-Age Program Director
  • Family Home Owner

Roles *not* eligible to complete the Facility Application:

  • Center or Family Home Aide
  • Center or Family Home Assistant Teacher
  • School-Age Child Care Assistant
  • Center or Family Home Lead Teacher
  • School-Age Lead Staff or Group Leader
  • Other – as classified in MERIT

The Facility Application will open on Monday, February 10, 2025, and remain open for four weeks. The application window closes on Friday, March 7, 2025, at 11:59pm PT.

Each facility needs to apply on their own. Multiple facilities within an organization may apply and may be selected, though each facility must apply separately.

In MERIT, all of your employees need to be marked as “confirmed” under their Status, and have the correct Job Title listed for your facility. Detailed instructions on how to confirm employees can be found in the DCYF MERIT Facility/Site Registration guide, slides 12-16. You can also contact the Imagine Institutes Technical Assistants to help you by calling 206-492-5249.

Yes, Technical Assistance is available live in Arabic, English, Hindi, Mai Mai, Somali, Spanish, and Swahili, and able to utilize tele-interpretation for any additional language.

Technical Assistance is available live by phone between 8:00am and 6:00pm PT. For more information, call 206-492-5249 or email us at [email protected]

Once a facility is selected, the facility representative will receive an email from AidKit to complete a staff roster. Once the staff roster is completed, then workers at the facility who are confirmed in MERIT and working in eligible job roles will receive an email invitation to enroll in the Pilot. If there are any questions regarding an employee, the facility representative will be contacted to help verify the employee’s information.

Facilities must keep their employment records up to date in MERIT, ensuring that all staff are listed in their current job roles and confirmed by the facility representative. This includes removing any staff who are no longer working for the facility from the facility roster in MERIT.

Quarterly, throughout the duration of the Pilot, facility representatives will be asked to review an employee roster to verify that all employees are still working at that facility.

PAYMENTS

The Pilot is partnering with AidKit, Inc to issue all payments directly to individual workers. Facilities are not expected to make payments to workers.

No, facilities do not receive payments. The child care workers at the facility will receive a 1099 directly from AidKit, Inc.

Yes. The facility representative will receive a yearly payment for time spent on administrative duties. Payment amount is determined by licensed capacity.

FOR WORKERS

ENROLLMENT

Workers will receive an email from Pilot Partner AidKit, Inc inviting them to enroll in the Pilot. Make sure your email address in MERIT is up to date.

No, you must complete the Enrollment Form, which will be sent to the email address you have listed in MERIT, to be enrolled in the Pilot. Be sure to complete the Enrollment Form before the enrollment window closes 45 days after you receive the email invitation to enroll.

Workers can enroll once their facility representative has submitted an employee roster to AidKit and worker eligibility has been confirmed. Workers will receive an email to enroll in the Pilot once this administrative step is completed. Employee enrollment will be compared with available MERIT data to confirm eligibility criteria. Workers can also choose to disenroll from the Pilot.

If a worker does not wish to participate in the Pilot, you will be asked to complete a form stating that you are requesting to not enroll in the Pilot and do not wish to receive funds. Workers are also asked to complete a short survey letting us know why you chose not to participate. After choosing to not enroll in the Pilot, you will not be able to enroll later unless a future enrollment window is announced by the Pilot.

Workers will have 45 days to complete the enrollment form or choose to not enroll. If a worker chooses to not participate, this does need to be submitted as their choice via the enrollment form.

The Enrollment Form will collect basic information such as:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Phone
  • Email
  • Government issued identification
  • Preferred language for communications
  • Job title and length of employment at facility
  • Benefits received through your employer

 

You will also be required to complete a W9 form which will require an SSN or ITIN

Yes, Technical Assistance is available live in Arabic, English, Hindi, Mai Mai, Spanish, Somali, Swahili and able to utilize tele-interpretation for any additional language.

Technical Assistance is available live by phone between 8:00am and 6:00pm PT. For more information, call 206-492-5249 or email us at [email protected]

PAYMENTS

A worker will receive payments as early as within days of submitting their enrollment form as long as their identity and banking information is entered correctly and can be verified by AidKit without any follow-up required. Workers who have worked at their facility on or before December 1 2024 will receive the equivalent of two payments for the initial payment.

Payments are disbursed quarterly, starting in Spring 2025 and going through 2027. Upon enrollment, if Pilot participants were working at their facility on or before December 1, 2024, they will be eligible for 2 quarters worth of payments for the 1st payment. This is a one-time extra payment due to delays in Pilot launch.

Workers in the Pilot will be able to select either direct deposit into their bank account or can elect to have a pre-paid debit card mailed to them. Once activated, the pre-paid debit card will have the funds loaded onto it and can be used like a regular debit card.

The wage boost is considered taxable income and participants will receive a 1099 for each tax year that they are receiving funding from the Pilot. We encourage all workers considering participating to talk to a tax professional prior to enrollment to understand the potential tax implications for their individual circumstances.

Income based benefits have different rules and regulations around how individuals qualify. If you are currently receiving benefits that are income based in their qualifications, we encourage you to contact the benefits administrator prior to enrollment to understand the potential impact to your benefits. The Imagine Institute will assist participants by offering basic benefits counseling and providing resources and materials to help answer common questions, including those related to taxes. While the Imagine Institute aims to support workers with accessible information, it is strongly recommended that participants consult with their tax preparer or financial advisor for personalized advice tailored to their unique financial situation.

No, workers can determine how they want to use the additional compensation. There are no restrictions on the funds and workers are free to choose how they use the funds. Workers are not required to report or share the information with Best Starts for Kids or Pilot partners.

Optional surveys or focus groups may ask questions about how the funds are used, but answering these questions is completely voluntary.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT, LEARNING AND EVALUATION

The Best Starts Child Care Wage Boost Pilot builds on a foundation of community engagement and feedback processes. This engagement, led by King County, started in 2018 to better understand the issues that women and families face in the region. These processes elevated the issues of child care as critical in King County. In 2020, The King County Children and Families Strategy Task Force, recommended that King County advocate and support policies to support equitable and thriving wages for child care workers. Worker pay and benefits emerged as an important strategy to stabilize the child care sector and to improve the lives of child care workers who are primarily women of color. The Pilot was conceptualized and integrated into The Best Starts for Kids implementation plan as part of a new Best Starts Child Care Strategy.

Best Starts has partnered with multiple organizations, including Cardea Services, Scholar Fund and Headwater People, to provide opportunities for representatives from the Child Care sector to inform the Pilot Design. The organizations held key focus groups to solicit feedback on design elements and learning priorities. The recommendations from these focus groups determined core elements of the current design such as the payment structure, payment amount and learning priorities. Additionally, a Design Team of child care workers was organized by the Imagine Institute to provide feedback and insight on programmatic elements such as eligibility and prioritization criteria, payment structure and frequency, and impact to provider benefits.

The Imagine Institute recruited 15 Design Team members across language groups, job classifications, and provider types (licensed family home child care providers and child care center workers) to design the Pilot.  This group met throughout the design process to give feedback on design elements, raise considerations and give recommendations to Pilot partners.

The Best Starts for Kids Child Care Wage Boost Pilot invests in a cohort of child care workers and seeks to demonstrate how government investments can benefit the child care sector, workers, families, and the community. We are conducting a rigorous evaluation of the Wage Boost Pilot, and this evaluation will help us determine whether and how public investment in the King County child care workforce improves stress, financial wellbeing, the health of workers, workplace conditions, and the continuity of care for families and kids. The Wage Boost Pilot evaluation research was informed by child care workers from the community.

For evaluation purposes, your data may be combined with information we get about the wage boost, child care facilities, and other data from King County and/or Washington State. Our partners provide this information to the evaluation team to help study the impacts of the Pilot. Combined datasets help the evaluation team understand the learnings and outcomes of the Wage Boost Pilot. Any combined data will be kept secure by the evaluation team and will only be used to help with our learnings.

Your name and your facility’s name will not appear anywhere in published findings or reports.

Anyone in the King County child care workforce is invited to participate in evaluation opportunities, such as surveys and focus groups. If you are enrolled in the Pilot, you may receive opportunities to participate in surveys and/or focus groups by email.

If you are not enrolled in the Pilot, but you would still like to be contacted for evaluation opportunities, please contact [email protected]

We will share the results of our learnings on our evaluation website: https://www.urban.org/projects/best-starts-kids-child-care-wage-boost-pilot

We plan to share learnings with enrolled workers and anyone else interested in keeping up with the Pilot. Please contact the evaluation team at [email protected] to be informed of any Pilot learning opportunities.

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Timelines

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Amounts

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Payment Frequency

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Eligibility

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Requirements

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Resources

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Eligibility

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How will participants be selected?

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Currently on Income Qualified Benefits? Find out how the BSK Wage Boost may impact you.

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Learn more about the BSK Wage Boost!

Sign up to learn more about the BSK Wage Boost Pilot and be the first to know when new information is available. 

Please call 206-492-5249 or email us at BSKwageboost@imaginewa.org.
Sign up today

Frequently Asked Questions

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