The Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care and the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario responded to the 2026 Ontario budget by renewing their call for a provincial wage grid for Registered Early Childhood Educators starting at $35 to $45 per hour, and $28 per hour for non-RECE staff, along with pension and benefits plans.
Seven provinces and territories already have wage grids for ECEs. Manitoba implemented one and included a 2.9 per cent increase in its 2026 budget. Prince Edward Island has a wage grid, pension, and benefits plan already in place. Ontario, the largest province by child care sector size, does not.
For Ontario licensed child care centre operators, the practical question is direct: what would a $35 per hour RECE wage grid actually cost your centre - and would your CWELCC allocation cover it?
Where Wages Stand Today
The 2026 CWELCC funding guidelines establish two wage enhancement mechanisms built into the benchmark allocation.
The Wage Enhancement Grant (WEG) provides up to $2 per hour for eligible staff below the $33.81 per hour ceiling.
The Workforce Compensation Funding (WCF) provides RECE-specific increases with wage floors of $25.86 per hour for RECE program staff and $26.86 per hour for RECE supervisors, with ceilings of $28 per hour for program staff and $31 per hour for supervisors.
The wage floors - not the ceilings - are the right baseline for this analysis. They represent the minimum a centre must pay eligible RECE staff under the 2026 guidelines. Any centre paying at the floor is already at the bottom of what the Ministry requires. The proposed wage grid would establish a new, higher floor that the current benchmarks are not built to cover.
The Gap Between Current Floors and the Proposed Grid
Using a standard full-time equivalent of 1,820 hours per year and employer benefits at 17.5 per cent, the additional annual cost per FTE between the current 2026 wage floor and the proposed $35 per hour minimum is:
RECE Program Staff
- Current floor: $25.86 per hour
- Proposed minimum: $35.00 per hour
- Gap: $9.14 per hour
- Additional wages per FTE: $9.14 x 1,820 = $16,635
- With 17.5% benefits: $16,635 x 1.175 = $19,545 per FTE
RECE Supervisor
- Current floor: $26.86 per hour
- Proposed minimum: $35.00 per hour
- Gap: $8.14 per hour
- Additional wages per FTE: $8.14 x 1,820 = $14,815
- With 17.5% benefits: $14,815 x 1.175 = $17,407 per FTE
Non-RECE Staff
- Current approximate average: $20.00 per hour
- Proposed minimum: $28.00 per hour
- Gap: $8.00 per hour
- Additional wages per FTE: $8.00 x 1,820 = $14,560
- With 17.5% benefits: $14,560 x 1.175 = $17,108 per FTE
These figures represent the incremental cost above what centres are already required to pay under the 2026 CWELCC wage floor requirements. Centres paying above the floor - which many are, particularly in competitive urban markets - would face a smaller gap to the proposed grid. But the floor-to-grid calculation gives the most defensible baseline for planning purposes.
Centre-Level Cost Impact
The following scenarios model three typical Ontario licensed child care centre sizes, using a preschool-ratio staffing structure. All calculations use the 2026 CWELCC wage floors as the baseline and the $35 per hour RECE grid minimum and $28 per hour non-RECE minimum as the proposed new floor.
Small Centre - 16 Licensed Spaces
Staffing: 1 RECE program staff FTE, 1 RECE supervisor FTE, 1 non-RECE FTE.
- RECE program staff: 1 x $19,545 = $19,545
- RECE supervisor: 1 x $17,407 = $17,407
- Non-RECE: 1 x $17,108 = $17,108
- Total additional annual cost: $54,060
As a percentage of a typical 16-space preschool benchmark allocation (approximately $130,000 to $160,000): approximately 34 to 42 per cent of the full allocation.
Mid-Size Centre - 32 Licensed Spaces
Staffing: 3 RECE program staff FTEs, 1 RECE supervisor FTE, 1 non-RECE FTE.
- RECE program staff: 3 x $19,545 = $58,635
- RECE supervisor: 1 x $17,407 = $17,407
- Non-RECE: 1 x $17,108 = $17,108
- Total additional annual cost: $93,150
As a percentage of a typical 32-space preschool benchmark allocation (approximately $260,000 to $310,000): approximately 30 to 36 per cent of the full allocation.
Large Centre - 80 Licensed Spaces
Staffing: 8 RECE program staff FTEs, 1 RECE supervisor FTE, 4 non-RECE FTEs.
- RECE program staff: 8 x $19,545 = $156,360
- RECE supervisor: 1 x $17,407 = $17,407
- Non-RECE: 4 x $17,108 = $68,432
- Total additional annual cost: $242,199
As a percentage of a typical 80-space preschool benchmark allocation (approximately $650,000 to $800,000): approximately 30 to 37 per cent of the full allocation.
The Critical Question: Would the Benchmark Allocation Cover It?
The answer depends entirely on whether the Ministry updates the Schedule A staffing benchmark rates to reflect the new wage floor.
The 2026 Schedule A staffing benchmarks were built on statistical analysis of sector wage data at the time of publication. They incorporate the current WEG and WCF requirements - not a $35 per hour wage grid. If a wage grid is legislated without a corresponding benchmark update, operators would face a structural gap between their actual eligible costs and their Program Cost Allocation.
The consequences at the centre level would be direct:
For centres currently within their benchmark allocation, the additional wage costs would push actual eligible costs above the Program Cost Allocation. Eligible costs that exceed the PCA cannot be claimed - the PCA is the absolute ceiling on what can be recovered through CWELCC funding.
For centres already receiving a rolling top-up, the gap would increase the rolling top-up ratio in subsequent years - but with a one-year lag. The 2026 costs would not be captured in the rolling top-up until the 2027 calculation, and even then only to the extent actual costs exceeded the benchmark.
For centres considering opting out of CWELCC, a legislated wage grid would apply regardless of CWELCC enrollment. Non-CWELCC centres would have full pricing flexibility to pass the cost increase to families. CWELCC centres would not - they remain subject to the $22 per day base fee cap.
The Scale of the Funding Gap
To put the numbers in context, if a 32-space preschool centre currently receiving a benchmark allocation of $280,000 faces $93,150 in additional annual wage costs from the proposed grid, their eligible cost claim would need to increase by 33 per cent to stay whole - assuming no benchmark update.
That is not a gap that can be absorbed by the Allocation in Lieu of Profit and Surplus, which for a centre of this size would be approximately $23,000 to $27,000 per year. It is also not a gap that can be addressed through operating efficiencies or expense management.
The only paths for an operator facing this scenario are:
Wait for a benchmark update that reflects the new wage floor - which would require the Ministry to publish revised Schedule A rates before or concurrent with any wage grid legislation.
Absorb the gap from reserves or other revenue - which most small and mid-size centres do not have the capacity to sustain beyond one year.
Opt out of CWELCC and charge market rates - which removes the fee cap but also removes CWELCC funding, WEG, WCF, and fee subsidy eligibility for families.
What the OCBCC and AECEO Are Actually Calling For
The wage grid proposal is not being made in isolation. The OCBCC and AECEO are calling for an additional $500 million in provincial CWELCC funding to support implementation - including updated benchmark allocations that reflect the new wage floor.
Their position is that the province must fund the wage increase, not pass it to operators. Whether the province agrees, and on what timeline, is the central uncertainty for operators planning beyond 2026.
What to Watch For
A wage grid at $35 per hour is not in effect as of May 2026. The OCBCC and AECEO response to the 2026 budget is an advocacy position, not an announced program.
However the signals are clear. Seven provinces have moved. The sector organizations are unified. The next multi-year CWELCC agreement - which Ontario has only signed a one-year extension of - will be the negotiating table where this question gets answered.
Operators who understand their current staffing costs, their Program Cost Allocation, and the gap between the two are best positioned to model the impact of any wage floor change before it arrives.
The Staff Wage Calculator in ChildcareFundingIQ lets you enter a hypothetical hourly wage for each staff member and see the total employer cost change instantly. Use it to model what a $35 per hour floor would cost your specific centre - with your actual staffing complement - before the legislation arrives.
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