Children from the Milam Child Development Center participate in a parade celebrating Month of the Military Child on Fort Bliss, Texas, April 1, 2026. (Kyler Hembree/U.S. Army)
The Army this month launched a new pay model for its child care workers to try to get staffing at all service-run child development centers above 90% to reduce wait times for families.
This includes raising pay for direct-care providers and offering discounts for child care for workers’ own children, said Christopher Surridge, an Army spokesman.
“Through a more-robust compensatory, hiring and employee benefits strategy, we will ensure that our [child development centers] are sufficiently staffed to better benefit our Army families,” Surridge said.
Securing safe child care is a significant point of stress for soldiers preparing for deployments, making it a primary focus for the service, Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer told the House Committee on Appropriations’ subpanel on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies in a hearing last month.
“Ninety percent staffing is proven across our other installations that our wait times are minimal when we get there,” he said.
Only 22 of the Army’s 68 installations are staffed at 90% or higher, Surridge said.
To boost hiring and retention, a new compensation and staffing model will be fully implemented for direct-care staff by the end of April, he said. It will cover all other staff by October. Installations also can offer recruitment and retention bonuses to further attract and retain employees.
Job openings posted on the government’s online job board showed open positions across the country starting at about $18 an hour.
Because many workers are also parents, the Army will cover 100% of child care fees for the first child of an employee when care is provided in an Army program, and it will provide a 25% discount for additional children, Surridge said.
This incentive was listed at the top of the Army’s online job postings.
Waitlists for Army child development centers for children under 5 years old vary by location and throughout the year, including 18 bases with no waitlist as of this month. However, across the Army, nearly 3,000 children are waiting for space to open, Surridge said. That is down 38% from 2023.
The Army is not alone struggling to meet the demand of child care for its force. The other military services’ top enlisted personnel spoke as well during last month’s hearing in the House on different strategies they have tried.
The Space Force has partnered with off-base options, such as a program that provides 150 off-base spaces for children near Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado, said Chief Master Sgt. John F. Bentivegna.
Through a similar approach, the Navy has dropped its waitlist to about 1,500 children, said Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John Perryman. Using fee assistance for off-base facilities, the service added about 2,000 openings. It also bumped staffing at its own day cares from a 63% low to nearly 90%.
