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Human services · Helping & Teaching

Home child care provider: what the job actually is

Looking after other people's children in a home, yours or theirs, all day, with a rule for how many you can take.

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Home child care provider: quick facts

Home child care provider salary in Ontario: the median pay is $19.00 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024). Its three-year outlook in Ontario is moderate. The job usually needs a high school diploma, or several weeks of on-the-job training.

Median pay in Ontario
$19.00 an hour
Pay range (low to high)
$17.95 to $30.00 an hour
Job outlook, 2025-2027
Moderate
People working in it in Ontario
8,950
Usually needs
Usually a high school diploma, or several weeks of on-the-job training

Source: Job Bank wages (updated 19 November 2025) and job prospects (updated 10 December 2025), NOC 44100. Pay varies by region and experience.

The work

What this job actually is

  • Job Bank describes supervising and caring for children in the employer's or your own residence, bathing, dressing and feeding them, preparing meals, and providing educational activities through games, crafts and reading.
  • The group includes babysitters, nannies, au pairs, live-in caregivers, family child care providers and foster parents. Job Bank reports one set of pay and outlook figures for all of them.
  • ontario.ca says an individual home child care provider overseen by a licensed agency can care for up to 6 children under the age of 13, which must include any of their own children under four, and that only 3 of the children can be under two.
  • An unlicensed provider is limited to 5 children under 13, still with no more than 3 under two. ontario.ca says unlicensed providers must work at one location and must tell parents in writing that the programme is unlicensed.
  • It is the one job in this library where your workplace is a house, which means the line between your life and your work is very thin.

A Tuesday

What a normal day looks like

Not a good day or a bad one. The ordinary version, which is what you would actually be living.

  1. 6:45 — Up before anyone. Open the house, set out breakfast, check the first-aid kit and the gate on the stairs.
  2. 7:30 — Drop-offs. Four children arrive in four moods, and one parent wants a long conversation at the door.
  3. 8:30 — Breakfast, then diapers or toileting, hands washed, shoes on. This is the part of the day with the most steps and the least time.
  4. 9:30 — Circle time or a craft. It ends in a mess that has to be cleaned before it becomes a different mess.
  5. 10:30 — Outside, in whatever the weather is. Count heads every few minutes.
  6. 12:00 — Lunch, then the two-hour stretch where the younger ones sleep and you do the cleaning, the paperwork and your own lunch, standing up.
  7. 14:30 — Snack, story, and a child who has a fever. You call the parent and you stay calm about it.
  8. 16:00 — Pick-ups. Tell each parent one true, specific thing about their child's day.
  9. 17:45 — Last child leaves. Reset the house, which is also your house, and start the shopping list for tomorrow.

Honestly

Who loves this, and who should not do it

The second list is the useful one. Nearly every careers page leaves it out, which is why nearly every careers page reads like an advert.

You may like this if
  • You are happy with small children for hours at a time, including the loud and messy parts.
  • You want to work from home, or in a family home, and work with a small group, not a classroom.
  • You are patient, organised and tough about routine, and you can keep calm when a child is hurt.
  • You like being trusted by families and knowing their children well.
  • You want to run something small on your own terms, with the rules clear.
You may hate this if
  • You need your home to be yours. Job Bank describes the work as caring for children in your own or the employer's residence, so your living space is the workplace.
  • You want a clear boundary between work and home. Parents arrive early and late, and children get sick.
  • You cannot manage on a low and variable income. pay depends on how many children are enrolled and on what parents pay.
  • You hate paperwork and rules. Licensed providers have a first aid certificate and background check to maintain, and ontario.ca says those are required.
  • You dislike conflict with parents, who can be demanding, late with payment or critical.
  • You do not like being responsible every minute. Small children can get hurt very fast.

The route in

How you actually get there in Ontario

  1. There is no licence for you as an individual

    Job Bank says home child care provider is not regulated in Canada, so licensing is not compulsory. It says completion of secondary school may be required, along with child care or household management experience, and first aid and CPR training depending on the employer.

  2. Know the two Ontario options

    ontario.ca says a provider can work through a licensed home child care agency or operate unlicensed. Licensed agencies oversee their providers. Individual providers are not licensed by the Ministry of Education themselves, but are overseen by licensed agencies.

  3. Licensed providers have extra requirements

    ontario.ca's child care rules page says providers overseen by a licensed agency must hold a valid standard first aid certification including infant and child CPR, and complete vulnerable sector checks every 5 years. We could not read the full agency application process, so ask a licensed agency directly.

  4. Training in child care helps but is not the entry ticket

    Job Bank says training in child care or a related field may be needed. The early childhood educator page covers the regulated college route, which is a separate career and is not required to be a home child care provider.

Where this comes from: Job Bank — Home child care providers: requirements in Ontario · NOC 2021 — Unit group 44100 profile · Ontario — Child care rules in Ontario · Ontario — Types of child care · Job Bank — Home child care providers: Ontario wage report

The money

Home child care provider salary in Ontario

Job Bank's own figures, quoted rather than summarised, with the period they describe — so you can tell how old they are and go and check them.

$17.95
Low (hourly)
$19.00
Median (hourly)
$30.00
High (hourly)

Ontario, NOC 44100. Reference period 2023-2024, last updated by Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Wages vary a lot by region inside Ontario and by how long you have been doing it — the low figure is roughly where you start, not what the job is worth.

Source: Job Bank — Home child care provider wages in Ontario

Where it is heading

The outlook for the next three years

Job Bank publishes a three-year outlook for every job in every province. It is the closest thing to an honest forecast, and it moves, so read it as a weather report rather than a verdict.

Ontario, 2025-2027

Moderate3 out of 5 stars

  • Employment growth will lead to a few new positions.
  • A moderate number of positions will become available due to retirements.

What that rating means: how many openings Job Bank expects in Ontario for this kind of work against how many people are likely to be looking — not whether it is a good job. A “limited” rating means more competition for each opening; it does not close the door, and it can change before you are ready to walk through it.

What is changing in this work

  • Generally, steady opportunities as more parents participate in the workforce
  • Provincial wage enhancement investments for home child care providers
8,950
people work in this job in Ontario
more than 95%
are women (48% across all jobs)
53%
are self-employed (15% across all jobs)

Source: Job Bank — Home child care providers job prospects in Ontario (NOC 44100). Outlook updated by Job Bank on 10 December 2025; read by us on 5 October 2026.

Before you leave school

Things you can do now

  • Babysit for real, regularly, and ask the parents afterward what you did well and what you should do differently.
  • Take a first aid and CPR course that includes infants and children. Ontario's rules for licensed providers require it, and it is worth having anyway.
  • Volunteer in a child care centre, an after-school programme, a camp or a school classroom, and ask for the ordinary part of the day.
  • Ask your guidance office whether a co-op placement in child care or an early learning setting is possible.

Test it

Do this before you decide anything

Reading about a job tells you almost nothing. This is designed to be done alone, this week, for free.

Spend three real hours looking after small children

About 120 minutes
  1. Arrange to look after younger relatives, with an adult in the home, for a stretch that includes a meal and a nap or quiet time.
  2. Do the whole routine: food, hands washed, toileting, a short activity, outside time, and clearing up. Keep a clock in view.
  3. Notice the moment you felt most tired and what caused it. Was it noise, repetition, worry about safety, or having no break?
  4. Read the ontario.ca child care rules page on home child care and find out how many children a provider can take.

What it tells you. If you finished with energy left and the tiring parts did not make you dread doing it again, you have the main thing this job needs. If the noise, the constant watching or the lack of a break wore you out, that is honest information and common: you may prefer working with children in a school or centre, with colleagues, not alone.

Better than any article

Questions for somebody who does this job

Most people say yes to a teenager who asks good questions. These are the ones that get real answers rather than encouragement.

  1. “How many children do you look after, and how many of them are under two?”
  2. “Do you work through an agency or on your own, and why did you choose that?”
  3. “What does the paperwork and the safety checking actually take?”
  4. “How do you handle a parent who pays late or collects late?”
  5. “What is the income like in a good month and a poor one?”
  6. “How do you keep home life and work apart?”

Could you own one of these?

The part other career sites never mention

Yes. The workforce figures on this page show a much larger self-employed share here than in the workforce overall. You can run a home child care service on your own as an unlicensed provider within the 5-child limit, or work through a licensed agency. Check the rules on ontario.ca first, because they cover the limits, one location and the written notice to parents.

Business 101 is free and teaches that part

Quick answers

Questions people ask about this job

How much does a home child care provider make in Ontario?

The median pay for a home child care provider in Ontario is $19.00 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024, updated 19 November 2025). The range Job Bank publishes runs from $17.95 to $30.00 an hour. Pay varies by region, employer and experience.

What is the job outlook for a home child care provider in Ontario?

Job Bank rates the employment outlook for this work in Ontario as moderate for 2025-2027 (updated 10 December 2025). Employment growth will lead to a few new positions. A moderate number of positions will become available due to retirements. A lower rating means more competition for each opening, not that no one is hiring.

What do you need to become a home child care provider in Ontario?

Job Bank says this work usually needs a high school diploma, or several weeks of on-the-job training. The usual route in Ontario, in order: There is no licence for you as an individual; Know the two Ontario options; Licensed providers have extra requirements.

How many people work as a home child care provider in Ontario, and how many are women?

Job Bank counts about 8,950 people working in this job in Ontario. More than 95% of them are women, compared with 48% across all jobs. That describes who does the work today, not who can.

Not sure this is the right list to be reading

Start from yourself, not from the job.

Future Finder is free, takes about ten minutes, needs no account and stores nothing. It will tell you which kinds of work you lean toward, and which of these pages are worth your time.

Try Future Finder — freeAll jobs

Parent of a teenager weighing this up? Career coaching for teens gets them talking to people who do the work, anywhere in Ontario.

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Wages and training requirements change. Every figure on this page is linked to the body that publishes it, and the review date above says when we last checked. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.