In quotes: Oregon provides retirement benefits for child care providers

🎉 Celebrating our exciting partnership with @Oregon_AFSCME and @OREarlyLearning—bringing $5M in retirement benefits to nearly 1k deserving child care workers across the state! https://t.co/5avZqDjxmo

— OregonSaves (@ORSaves) February 13, 2024

“Raquel Cinta holds back tears as she talks about her new retirement benefits.

“Cinta runs Raquel’s Child Care in McMinnville, where she, an assistant and another teacher care for 16 children who range in age from 9 months to 12 years. She’s been a child care provider for more than 20 years and never thought the work would allow her to plan for retirement.

“But Cinta was among the 900 self-employed child care providers recently given about $4,400 in an OregonSaves retirement account, after the American Federation of State, County and Municipal employees union struck a deal with the state to award $5 million in retirement savings to child care providers from American Rescue Plan Act funding.

“ ‘I’m so happy. I’m happy for my family,’ Cinta said in Spanish. ‘I’m going to be able to take care of myself.’ ”

— “ ‘I’m so happy’: State seeds retirement accounts for 900 child care providers,” by Sami Edge, The Oregonian/OregonLive, February 20, 2024