Caitlin Cutting
CTW 1
November 5th 2009
CTW 1
November 5th 2009
Low Wage Life Proposal
For this project I am planning to look at low educated childcare providers. I want to investigate and look at different aspects of this job and how it affects ones lifestyle. Do childcare providers ever have to work two jobs or do they even have time to? The work is hard and long hours but does it pay enough to get by (Ehrenreich, 41-49). I want to look at how and if it is possible to move up in this career to accomplish the American dream or if that is something of the past. Does hard work pay off or just keep workers with little education in there place (Shipler 33). I want to find personal stories of people really living this life and see how it works out. Sharing these stories will help to show the importance of this issue (Shipler 46-59). This work might support a single person on there own and maybe even a married couple but what about families with children, is it possible to raise children while being a childcare providers or do you spend all your time raising other peoples children (Shipler, 39-76). I want to run an experiment and see how I would make this work out, find a starting pay, and affordable place to live, and work out all my expenses. Could I make this work? (Ehrenreich 1-6) Does having children of your own make working with children harder or does it give you an advantage? Does being a childcare provider earn you enough to put your own children in childcare (Shipler 39-46). How possible is it really to live taking care of other peoples children. Childcare providers are an essential part of American society, they do so much for everyone ells but are we doing anything for them or just making life harder (Shipler 30).
Work Cited
Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickle and Dimed. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2001.
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. New Your: Harper Perennial, 2005.
Shipler, David K. The Working Poor. New York: Vintage Books, 2004.
hi I was surfing the blogs looking for things that interest me. I am a licensed child care provider of 16 years. I have a BS degree in elementary education, so this I guess this qualifies me as "educated" and not part of the group your looking for.
ReplyDeleteThe real truth is while a formal education is nice, it is NOT necessary for suceeding as a child care provider. Can a person reach the american dream being single and a child care provider? Yes and NO, totally dependant on the life styles choices and decisions you make.
Your looking at a very wide range of issues that impact the final answer. From location, building conditions, the ability to understand what being a child care provider means, to bookkeeping, household management skills and personal interests.
For example the tax deductions for doing child care out of your home are really good. It's possible to make 30,000 or more and not have taxes owed. Now if your in a mind set that your just "babysitting" and don't think that the business side of childcare is worth the paperwork your going to pay taxes on all that money. Does it take a college education to know these deductions? no. There are a number of easy to read (8-9th grade level) books that explain things and have lists of things for the provider to be aware of. All the provider has to do is record a few details about the purchase price and give all that information to a tax preparer. The main task is to record, record, record.
Having the mind set to take advantage of the city, county, state and internet resources goes a long way to making it as a provider. Again I could write a book about the variety of different help, support and even grants that are out there.
How much can a provider make? I'm going to thow some very generic information out. I live in Mn. As a c-2 licensed provider I can have 12 children with no other help. Other states have different laws, but for this case I'm just dealing with my numbers. A low range fee for daycare for this is $100 for a 45 hour week. I'm using $100 as a fee, because it's easier math...so that could be $1200 a week, times 48 week (need a little time off), your talking about 57,600. The state food program (more bookwork) helps out with the meals with a reimbursment which will pay for half the food bill if not the whole thing. Again this would depend on how good a person is with book keeping and food related topics. Off the top of my head, having been in the buisness for a number of years I would guess my "have to spend" direct expenses for this number of kids would be at least $1000. This leaves an estimate of 50,000 for income...wait, I can deducte a portion of my heat, elect....and a variety of other things that only child providers can. Dropping my income lower and lower depending how much I'm aware of tax issues. Bottom line, it becomes possible to lower the taxable income to a point where you pay very little in taxes, if anything thing.
What does that mean? It's like making 15-30% MORE money than you made.
You may ask what I mean. Well if teacher made $28,000 she is pays 15% income tax on that $28,000 after her personal deductions. If a provider makes $28,000 it's possible that she can deduct it down with expenses that only the provider can claim (portion of heat, electric bill...depreation on the house) meaning a possibility of paying little or no taxes.
Okay back to your "uneducated" part. hmm again I don't feel providers need to have formal education. They do have to be open and willing to learn and understand that they need the mentorship of other providers and community and state in which they live. THAT is what is going to make them suceed.
LOL, didn't expect a book from a person you don't know right. Sorry about that..but I hope it helps.
Bre-
ReplyDeleteI could not find a way to send you a message so I hope by some chance you glance back at my entry. I am junior at Santa Clara working on my BA in education and planning to start my master’s work this summer. This is a project for my lower division writing class based on low wage worker and people in poverty. Your insight is very helpful and I would love to communicate more with you and use your knowledge to aid in my project. Please let me know if you would be interested in e-mail with me and thank you for your thoughts.