How to hire a day care aide

Day care aide hiring summary. Here are some key points about hiring day care aides in the United States:

HR departments typically spend 15% of their expenses on recruitment.
It usually takes about 12 weeks for a new employee to reach full productivity levels.
It typically takes 36-42 days to fill a job opening.
The median cost to hire a day care aide is $1,633.
Small businesses spend an average of $1,105 per day care aide on training each year, while large companies spend $658.
There are currently 88,476 day care aides in the US and 161,417 job openings.
Pittsburgh, PA, has the highest demand for day care aides, with 8 job openings.
New York, NY has the highest concentration of day care aides.

How to hire a day care aide, step by step

To hire a day care aide, you should clearly understand the skills and experience you are looking for in a candidate, and allocate a budget for the position. You will also need to post and promote the job opening to reach potential candidates. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to hire a day care aide:

Here's a step-by-step day care aide hiring guide:

Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
Step 3: Make a budget
Step 4: Write a day care aide job description
Step 5: Post your job
Step 6: Interview candidates
Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new day care aide
Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a day care aide do?

A day care aide works at daycare centers where they facilitate activities and provide care to children. Their daily tasks include cleaning and preparing the facilities before the children arrive, organizing lesson plans and recreational activities, welcoming parents and their children, preparing meals, and promoting personal hygiene. They may also play with the children, read storybooks, lead nursery songs and dances, and solve issues promptly and efficiently. Moreover, as a day care aide, it is essential to keep an eye on the children and maintain a safe environment for them.

Learn more about the specifics of what a day care aide does

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Identify your hiring needs

Before you start hiring a day care aide, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

Determine employee vs contractor status

Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

Hiring the perfect day care aide also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

The following list breaks down different types of day care aides and their corresponding salaries.

Type of Day Care Aide	Description	Hourly rate
Day Care Aide	Childcare workers provide care for children when parents and other family members are unavailable. They attend to children’s basic needs, such as bathing and feeding... Show more	$11-18
Toddler Teacher	A toddler teacher is responsible for teaching young learners by administering physical care and monitoring their social and mental development. Toddler teachers prepare fun and engaging activities for the children and evaluate their behaviors and assess how they interact with the environment... Show more	$11-18
Vocational Childcare Teacher	A vocational childcare teacher teaches vocational subjects at a secondary school level, in either public or private schools. Their duties include preparing materials for classroom activities, assigning and grading classwork, and designing assignments... Show more	$11-18

Create an ideal candidate profile
Common skills:
- Patients
- CPR
- Child Care
- Home Health
- Professional Growth
- Direct Care
- Taking Care
- Cleanliness
- Clean Environment
- Rehabilitation
- Autism
- Developmental Disabilities
- Kids
- Role Model
Check all skills
Responsibilities:
- Train in first aid and CPR.
- Certify in basic first aid and certify in CPR.
- Implement strategies learned in TCI to assist clients in crisis.
- Work in a fast pace environment with many kids of elementary school age.
- Create and distribute nutritional meals and snacks in accord with the USDA standard.
- Provide care and play time for a group of dogs while pet parents are away.
More day care aide duties

Make a budget

Including a salary range in your day care aide job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. A day care aide can vary based on:

Location. For example, day care aides' average salary in alaska is 45% less than in new jersey.
Seniority. Entry-level day care aides 41% less than senior-level day care aides.
Certifications. A day care aide with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in a day care aide's salary.

Average day care aide salary

$14.84hourly

$30,874 yearly

Entry-level day care aide salary

$23,000 yearly salary

Updated December 17, 2025

Average day care aide salary by state

Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
1	New Jersey	$40,248	$19
2	Massachusetts	$37,911	$18
3	New York	$35,626	$17
4	North Dakota	$35,115	$17
5	Ohio	$34,186	$16
6	California	$34,159	$16
7	Minnesota	$34,126	$16
8	Wisconsin	$33,878	$16
9	Illinois	$32,792	$16
10	Colorado	$31,019	$15
11	Michigan	$30,344	$15
12	Missouri	$29,357	$14
13	Nebraska	$28,782	$14
14	South Dakota	$28,563	$14
15	Idaho	$24,450	$12
16	Florida	$24,364	$12
17	Iowa	$23,671	$11

Average day care aide salary by company

Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
1	Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES	$37,065	$17.82	7
2	Strongsville City Schools	$37,046	$17.81	3
3	Hackensack Meridian Health	$35,664	$17.15	203
4	Lifesteps	$35,193	$16.92	289
5	St. Clare Catholic School	$35,169	$16.91	4
6	Mount Sinai Health System	$34,594	$16.63	22
7	Sharp HealthCare	$33,080	$15.90	10
8	St. Luke's Health System	$32,639	$15.69	52
9	Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program	$32,555	$15.65	5
10	Methodist Health System	$32,485	$15.62	40
11	Tenet Healthcare	$32,304	$15.53	127
12	Munson Healthcare	$32,213	$15.49	15
13	St. Peter's Health	$32,163	$15.46	4
14	Buena Vista University	$32,109	$15.44	6
15	UCP of Long Island	$32,097	$15.43
16	Huntsville Hospital	$32,068	$15.42	24
17	Providence Health & Services	$32,023	$15.40	87
18	Benedictine Health System	$31,997	$15.38	34
19	Trinity Health	$31,986	$15.38	345
20	Pro Health Care Services	$31,926	$15.35	15

Writing a day care aide job description
A day care aide job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. Below, you can find an example of a day care aide job description:
Day care aide job description example
- Current and valid license by the Rhode Island Department of Health as C.N.A OR a graduate of an approved Nurse Aide training program with a 120 day temporary C.N.A. license.
What does Saint Elizabeth Community offer employees?

Our holistic benefit options encompass your Health and Wellbeing, your individual and family needs, your professional growth and more by including:
- Competitive pay
- Flexible Scheduling Options
- Blue Cross Blue Shield Health Insurance & Delta Dental Insurance offered for employees working 20+ hours/week
- 403B
- Career advancement & training opportunities to support individual employee goals
- Employee Referral Bonus
Why choose Saint Elizabeth Community?

We are a non-profit community, providing quality care to older adults and people with physical disabilities. Trusted Care Since 1882, we have been committed to supporting our community with compassionate and innovative care! Saint Elizabeth Community includes 7 beautifully maintained Rhode Island locations offering apartments for Independent Seniors, Home Care Services, Adult Day Centers, affordable Assisted Living, Skilled Nursing, Rehabilitation, and more!

- Trusted Care Since 1882 -

Our Mission of Caring extends not only to the individuals we serve but also, to our employees. We are committed to superior staffing ratios and require no mandated shifts .

Apply today to contribute to, and personally experience the
Saint Elizabeth Community Mission of Caring.

EEOC

We're an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, or disability status.
Post your job
To find day care aides for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:
- Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
- Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any day care aides they would recommend.
- Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level day care aides with the right educational background.
- Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.
Post your job online:
- Post your day care aide job on Zippia to find and recruit day care aide candidates who meet your exact specifications.
- Use field-specific websites.
- Post a job on free websites.
Interview candidates
Recruiting day care aides requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.
Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.
The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.
Send a job offer and onboard your new day care aide
Once you've found the day care aide candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.
It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.
After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new day care aide. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.
Go through the hiring process checklist
- Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
- Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
- Define job responsibilities and requirements
- Establish budget and timeline
- Determine hiring decision makers for the role
- Write job description
- Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
- Promote the job internally
- Process applications through applicant tracking system
- Review resumes and cover letters
- Shortlist candidates for screening
- Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
- Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
- Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
- Conduct background checks on top candidates
- Check references of top candidates
- Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
- Extend offer to top candidate(s)
- Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
- Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
- Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
- Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)
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How much does it cost to hire a day care aide?

Before you start to hire day care aides, it pays to consider both the one-off costs like recruitment, job promotion, and onboarding, as well as the ongoing costs of an employee's salary and benefits. While most companies that hire day care aides pay close attention to the initial cost of hiring, ongoing costs are much more significant in the long run.

Day care aides earn a median yearly salary is $30,874 a year in the US. However, if you're looking to find day care aides for hire on a contract or per-project basis, hourly rates typically range between $11 and $18.

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Hiring day care aides FAQs

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Updated December 17, 2025

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How to hire a day care aide