Wage Top-Ups Funding
Child care programs will receive wage top-up funding as a grant to administer additional pay for eligible certified ECEs, over and above the employer-paid wage. When the program administers the wage top-up to their ECE employees, it is considered a ‘wage’ and the program is required to assume the costs associated with administering the top-up in accordance with all applicable provincial and federal legislation. When the wage top-up funding is transferred to the contracted family day home educators, the licensed family day home agencies must also administer the payments in accordance with all applicable legislation.
Wage top-ups are paid up to a maximum of 181 hours per month.
| WAGE TOP-UP RATES BY CERTIFICATION LEVEL (Effective January 2023) | |
| ECE certification level Amount | |
| Level 1 Early Childhood Educator (CDA) | $2.64 / hour |
| Level 2 Early Childhood Educator (CDW) | $5.05 / hour |
| Level 3 Early Childhood Educator (CDS) | $8.62 / hour |
WHO IS ELIGIBLE?
The wage top-up grant is for frontline ECEs that are certified paid employees and contracted certified family day home educators who:
- provide direct child care, including program supervisors and alternate supervisors (as defined in the Child Care Licensing Regulation), as well as people hired in the role of family child care consultants/coordinators with a licensed family day home agency;
- are certified as an Early Childhood Educator Level 1, 2 or 3; and meet the conditions outlined in the eligible hours for wage top- up section of this document.
WHO IS NOT ELIGIBLE?
This funding is not available to:
- individuals who are not paid employees, including volunteers (except for family day home educators providing services as contracted providers with licensed family day home agencies); Alberta Child Care Grant Funding Guide | For wage top-ups, professional development and release time (Jan 2023) 5 Classification: Public
- owners and operators who do not draw a wage/salary.
- individuals, including owners and operators, whose hours are worked outside the business/operational hours of the program.
- individuals with work visas that restrict employment in child care.
- individuals whose income is funded by another program, such as Program Unit Funding through Alberta Education, therapists and assistants paid through other organizations.
- cooks/cleaners/accountants/receptionists not providing direct child care.
- individuals not certified by the Alberta Child Care Staff Certification Office; and
- individuals whose duties fall under the non-eligible hours section.
ELIGIBLE HOURS FOR WAGE TOP UP
CHILDCARE HOURS
Child care hours include time directly or indirectly related to providing child care by the following individuals:
- paid ECEs employed in a licensed facility-based program (including preschools) responsible for the frontline child care and supervision of children; and family day home educators under a contract with a licensed family day home agency to provide child care and supervision to children up to 12 years of age (not including their own) in their private residence.
- Eligible child care hours include direct child care and supervision of children, as well as other related duties performed by the frontline ECE role, such as: cleaning, cooking, planning, organizing, completing administrative duties, planning, programming, setting up/taking down playrooms, purchasing play playroom supplies, participating in staff meeting, etc. These hours must be claimed under ‘direct child care hours’ in the online Child Care Claims Payment (C3P) system. Wage top-ups will be paid to a maximum of 181 hours per month.
- Hours can be claimed for ECEs that are paid for attending staff meeting held outside of regular operational hours.
- All claimed hours must be clearly documented on attendance records for audit purposes. The employer must pay the employee’s base wage for all hours claimed with supporting payroll documentation.
- ECEs with direct child care hours claimed in multiple programs will be eligible to receive the wage top-up to a maximum of 181 hours per month across all programs. Hours must not be claimed for statutory holidays and/or when the program is closed.
- Refer to the non-eligible hours section for a complete list of hours not eligible to be included on the monthly claim form.
NOTE: If any educator is not certified, they must apply for certification to the Alberta Child Care Staff Certification Office to access the wage top-up funding. The application process is online at alberta.ca/child-care-staff-certification.aspx. Grant funding will not be allocated to programs on behalf of uncertified individuals.
ADMINISTRATIVE HOURS
Programs may claim administrative hours for paid employees hired as program supervisors – as well as family day home agency coordinator and/or home visitor/consultant – for hours worked on site (on or off site, for family day home agency coordinators and/or home visitors/consultants) during the operational hours of the program. You can find definitions for these positions in the Schedule
1 (section 1(l) on page 11) of the Early Learning and Child Care Regulation, and the Family Day Home Standards Manual for Alberta (section “Definitions”) at alberta.ca/child-care.
Administrative hours include:
- Hours worked by paid staff employed in the role of “program supervisor”, a certified and designated staff member of a facility- based program whose duty is to supervise the provision of child care to children in the program.
- Hours worked by staff employed by the family day home agency in the role of an “agency coordinator” who manages the day- to-day operation of the licensed family day home service. The coordinator is responsible for administering the program and acting as a contact person for families in the community.
- Hours worked by staff employed by the licensed family day home agency in the role of “home visitor/consultant” who is responsible for the recruitment, approval, monitoring, training and support of program educators.
Alberta Child Care Grant Funding Guide | For wage top-ups, professional development and release time (Jan 2023) 6 Classification: Public Programs can claim administrative time for the wage top-up for work both on and off site during operational hours.
Programs are required to have timesheets with a break-down of direct child care hours and administrative hours they have claimed. of direct child care hours and administrative hours they have claimed.
Non-eligible hours (which hours cannot be claimed)
Hours may not be claimed for:
- Statutory holidays and/or any time when the program is closed
- ECEs who are not paid during their vacation time.
- Sick time
- Training time
- Administrative hours worked by an owner/operator who is not a paid employee in the role of a program supervisor
- Administrative hours worked by an owner/operator who is not a paid employee in the role of an agency coordinator or home visitor/consultant
- Hours worked off site (with the exception of agency home visitors/consultants responsible for the monitoring the homes of the contracted family day home educators)
- Hours worked during non-operational hours of the program
- Hours claimed above the 181 eligible hours per month
- Overtime hours worked at the rate of time and a half (1.5). Hours can only be claimed for actual hours worked (the additional “0.5 rate” is the responsibility of the employer)
Wage Top-Up Submission and Distribution
The 1st of every month, programs submit their teams’ eligible hours for the previous month to our CFO who then checks the data against the TimeSavr Sign-In data. TOPP KIDS then submits your eligible hours (signed off by you) to the Government. Within approximately 2 weeks TOPP KIDS is transferred your wage Top-Up dollars. These dollars are then added to the following payroll (normally the second payroll of the month) and distributed to you.
Remember that Wage Top-Ups are considered taxable and will be taxed accordingly. Wage Top-Ups are not guaranteed by TOPP KIDS and are based on the current Government programs. If a month has 3 payrolls top up will be added to the 3rd payroll.
INFORMATION TAKEN FROM THE ALBERTA CHILD CARE GRANT FUNDING GUIDE:
https://open.alberta.ca/publications/alberta-child-care-grant-funding-guide
