There are two primary challenges with wages in the early care and education workforce. First, entry-level wages are too low to attract and retain workers, causing significant turnover among this group. Second, there is too little premium paid for staff who have more experience or higher credentials to encourage workers to stay in the field or move up the career ladder. While these two problems are related, they likely require different policy solutions. Can policymakers solve one piece of this puzzle without negatively impacting the other? Specifically, can policymakers raise wages for those near the bottom of the pay scale without further disincentivizing those in the middle and at the top? To begin answering these questions, the authors focused on the impact of rising minimum wages on center-based child care workers in Illinois. They examined how raising the minimum wage--which substantively increases hourly wages for entry-level child care workers--impacts observed wages for higher-earning child care workers. The authors focused their analysis on Chicago and Illinois because the city began to raise its minimum wage in 2018 and the rest of the state did so 2 years later. The authors analyzed differences in wage increases between the lowest and highest earners before and after the minimum wage increases. [The Center for Early Learning Funding Equity at Northern Illinois University co-produced this report.]