Some early childhood educators in Hawaii earn an unlivable wage while parents have few resources to pay for childcare.

Hawaii News Now reports median hourly pay at $9.07 puts the workers among the worst paid in a national University of California-Berkeley study.

The Center for the Study of Child Care Employment also found that the median wage is 7 percent lower than it was five years ago despite Hawaii’s high cost of living.

Preschool workers make about twice as much while kindergarten teachers can earn a median hourly wage of $21.

The study says there are no tax policies or subsidies for Hawaii parents and the state could do more to help families cover costs.

A fifth of Hawaii’s kids younger than 5 years old live in low-income households.