we need to get ready for the tea party. reporter: the nonprofit staff has shrunk 30%. employees can earn a lot more money working anywhere other than child care. reporter: across the country, more than 10% of child care workers have left the industry during the pandemic, driven out by closures and furloughs early on, and now wage competition. nationwide, the average child care worker makes just over $12 an hour, far less than k-12 teachers. and in this competitive hiring market, other industries are raising wages to attract workers. this developmental time for children is most critical developmental time in the human life cycle. and yet we re competing against other minimum wage jobs. reporter: the american rescue plan passed by congress in march spent billions to keep the child care industry afloat. it helped nurture raise wages a dollar an hour, but martin ramos, a teacher here, works a second job at home depot. i been living check by check
we re student teacher training, making sure workers aren t getting abused in the workplace, raising the pay of child care workers. here we re talking about raising the pay of home care workers. the build back better is about work. it s about our economy. it is every bit as much an investment in our economy as the infrastructure act is, so we re going to talk soon about some of the things in the infrastructure act, but these things really work together to create, like i said, a firm foundation for our economy. joining us now is congresswoman katie porter, democratic california, she s a member of the house oversight committee and the deputy chair of the house progressive caucus. thank you very much for joining us once again tonight. so the build back better bill which the house has passed, it s now pending in the senate. the committees are doing their work on it. we don t know exactly when the senate will be ready to move on it.
for some time. she always points out, any nation that outeducated us will outcompete us. it s a simple proposition. look what the rest of the world is doing. china is investing billions of dollars in early education. i can go down the list. look, this build back better plan is also going to ensure that parents can afford child care. [applause] and the child care workers can get a raise and a raise that they deserve and more education. if you re paying $14,000 for child care like a lot of minnesota families do, my build back better plan is going to make it a giant difference in your life because your child care costs will not be will be capped at 7% of your income. [applause] that s it, 7% of your income. i will make a huge difference for the economy overall but for millions of workers who had to drop out of the workforce not because i want to do but because
the gas here. i m confident the president will secure the votes necessary to pass this but again, we re going to keep the pressure up because these investments are historic and sorely needed and long over due. investments like home and community based services to address a wait list that is thousands long for services for the disabled and the elderly, expansion of medicare to include hearing, lowering of prescription drug costs. investments in universal prek, in child care and also ensuring that we re supporting that work force. what we ve done with child care here is for most families, they won t be paying more than 7% of their income for child care, which isbility a the stabilization of our families and our work force. but we have to take care of those child care workers to 30% of them are women of color and one in six of them live in poverty. that is unconscionable they are taking care of our babies putting them on a pathway to a