Policymakers and practitioners are increasingly interested in using wage supplement strategies to address pervasively low compensation in the child care and early education (CCEE) field. The term “wage supplement” is used here to refer to forms of monetary payments that fall outside of educators’ normal pay and benefits. Examples include one-off bonuses, stipends provided at regular intervals (such as every three months or annually), and tax credits for individuals who worked in the CCEE field during the tax year.

This document describes how and why a wage supplement may lead to positive outcomes for the CCEE field – like improved retention and reduced turnover – through a theory-of-change model. The goal of any theory-of-change model is to create a shared understanding of the resources that are needed to support strategy implementation, the key activities to be carried out, expected activity outputs, and the desired outcomes.

This publication is part of the Building and Sustaining the Child Care and Early Education Workforce (BASE) Theory of Change Series, intended for readers who are interested in designing and evaluating their own workforce development strategies.