The first statewide survey of day care worker salaries and benefits, involving 4,844 employees from 413 day care centers, Head Start programs, and nursery schools, shows that day care workers in New York State, as in other states, are compensated with low wages and few benefits. For day care staff, neither years of experience nor educational achievement result in significant wage increases. New York State subsidies are inadequate. Wages are insufficient to attract and retain qualified workers. The staff turnover rate is high. Additional research reveals the high costs of low quality care and that few students are choosing college-based training programs in early childhood education as preparation for a career in day care. Day care is deteriorating in quality, with injurious effects to children and their parents, as well as to day care workers themselves. Present government policy perpetuates, rather than corrects, this situation. Data suggest a web of factors that must be taken into account in formulating solutions to these problems. Five important factors are (1) differences between programs, (2) differences in job categories, (3) local labor market conditions, (4) economics of operating individual centers, and (5) unionization. Eleven policy recommendations are offered and thirty endnotes are provided. (EH)