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Role hub · Childcare Workers

Daycare Worker: what the job is, what it pays, and how to get hired.

The work, the skills that matter, the tools in demand and the pay range, from U.S. government data, plus every TryHired page for the role.

Maid DizdarevicCareer coach · 8x LinkedIn Top Voice
Updated Nov 2, 2026 · Data: BLS OEWS May 2025 · O*NET 31.0
Pay ladder · select a percentile
Median percentile pay

Half of daycare workers earn more than this and half earn less.

Annual
$34,980
Hourly
$16.82
Source
BLS May 2025
Quick answer

Daycare Workers attend to children at schools, businesses, private households, and childcare institutions. The median pay is $34,980 a year ($16.82 an hour) (BLS, May 2025). The most commonly reported education requirement is a high school diploma or equivalent (39% of workers surveyed by O*NET).

Median pay
$34,980
BLS May 2025
Employed in the U.S.
518,910
BLS May 2025
Preparation
Job Zone 1-2 of 5
very little to some preparation
Most common education
High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED)
39% of workers

Data Government data groups this job as Childcare Workers (O*NET-SOC 39-9011.00). Figures on this page are for that occupation.

Key facts

Daycare Workers at a glance

  • Childcare workers in the United States earned a median annual wage of $34,980 in May 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025

  • In its 2025–35 employment projections, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry-level education for childcare workers in the United States.

    Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35

  • BLS projects employment of childcare workers in the United States to decline 2.0% from 2025 to 2035, with about 150,300 openings a year on average, including replacement openings.

    Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35

  • BLS estimates that less than 0.5% of childcare workers in the United States had the ability to telework in 2025, a preliminary estimate of whether the job allows it, not a count of remote jobs.

    Source: BLS Occupational Requirements Survey, 2025 preliminary

Explore the role

Every page for Daycare Workers

SalaryChildcare Workers salary

BLS pay data for this occupation, by state and percentile.

Open →How to becomeDaycare Worker how to become

Education, training and the skills to build first.

Open →ResumeDaycare Worker resume

Keywords, bullet formulas and the skills to prove.

Open →Interview questionsDaycare Worker interview questions

Questions with what they test, plus practice mode.

Open →Free toolCheck your resume

Parsed text, evidence per bullet, fixes first.

Open →
The work

What daycare workers do day to day

Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).

  1. Maintain a safe play environment.
  2. Observe and monitor children's play activities.
  3. Communicate with children's parents or guardians about daily activities, behaviors, and related issues.
  4. Support children's emotional and social development, encouraging understanding of others and positive self-concepts.
  5. Care for children in institutional setting, such as group homes, nursery schools, private businesses, or schools for people with disabilities.
  6. Sanitize toys and play equipment.
  7. Dress children and change diapers.
  8. Keep records on individual children, including daily observations and information about activities, meals served, and medications administered.
Job requirements

What the job requires

Data BLS figures for childcare workers (SOC 39-9011), 2025 preliminary BLS Occupational Requirements Survey.

Telework available
less than 0.5%
of workers had the ability to telework
Workday sitting
30.1%
mean share of the day required to sit
Most common strength level
Medium
63.1% of workers
Can pause work
9.0%
of workers could take short, unscheduled breaks
Self-paced workload
less than 0.5%
of workers set their own workload
Employer-changed schedules
30.0%
of workers had schedules changed by the employer week to week

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Requirements Survey. Estimates are preliminary; ranges are shown as published.

Where this career works

Industries that employ it

Data Share of all daycare worker jobs in each industry, 2025 (BLS Employment Matrix).

  1. Social assistance31.2% of all jobs in this occupation · -2.7% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $34,050
  2. Private households16.7% of all jobs in this occupation · -2.8% projected change here 2025–35
  3. Educational services; state, local, and private12.7% of all jobs in this occupation · +0.4% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $38,250
  4. Religious, grantmaking, civic, professional, and similar organizations8.2% of all jobs in this occupation · +2.6% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $33,410
  5. Amusement, gambling, and recreation industries3.0% of all jobs in this occupation · +8.5% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $29,450
  6. Government, excluding state and local education and hospitals1.3% of all jobs in this occupation · +3.9% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $35,940

Sources: BLS 2025–35 National Employment Matrix (share of the occupation's jobs, projected change) and BLS OEWS May 2025 industry estimates (mean wage). Different industry estimates are not a pay forecast for any person.

Skills that matter

Ranked by importance to the job

Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.

MonitoringcoreService OrientationcoreSocial PerceptivenesscoreCoordinationActive ListeningSpeakingCritical ThinkingInstructingComplex Problem Solving

Knowledge areas: Customer and Personal Service, English Language, Education and Training, Public Safety and Security, Psychology.

Tools and technology

Software daycare workers use

Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.

  • Educational softwareComputer based training software
  • NearpodMulti-media educational software
  • SchoologyComputer based training software
  • SeesawMulti-media educational software
  • TadpolesDesktop communications software
  • Microsoft Office softwareOffice suite softwareHot technology
  • Microsoft WordWord processing softwareHot technology
  • Google ClassroomProject management software
  • Scheduling softwareCalendar and scheduling software
  • Web browser softwareInternet browser software

Also called: Childcare Worker, Caregiver, Child Care Worker, Child Caregiver, Childcare Provider, Daycare Teacher.

Method

How this page is built

Tasks, skills, tools, education and related roles come from O*NET 31.0. Pay and employment come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates. The skill-match score is our calculation: Skill match is the cosine similarity of the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level and subtract the average across all occupations, then compare the direction of the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 means unrelated or opposite (negative values are shown as 0). Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.

What this page can't tell you
  • How a specific employer defines the job.
  • Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
  • Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
Sources
  1. O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).

How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.