Real benefits for the educators you can't afford to lose.

Even well-resourced early childhood programs report about 30% annual staff turnover, with lead-teacher tenure averaging a little over two years, and turnover rose after pandemic-era funding ended in 2025. More than 80% of centers report a staffing shortage. At $2,500 to $5,000 to replace each teacher, the drain compounds for centers already on tight budgets, spread across recruiting, background checks, onboarding, training, and the classroom coverage needed to hold ratios.

Early educators are paid a median near $13 an hour and rarely receive strong supplemental coverage, and low pay is the strongest predictor of educator turnover. A wage-supplement study cut turnover from 30% to 15%, which shows how much a measurable take-home increase can do. Give this workforce real care they can use and a measurable increase in take-home pay, and more of them stay. There is a fuller retention playbook in the resources below.

Early educators earn a median near $13 an hour and rarely receive strong supplemental coverage. A benefit that adds take-home is a retention tool.

Low pay is the strongest predictor of educator turnover. A measurable take-home increase speaks to the leading driver.

The burnout of demanding classroom work drives departures. See the retention playbook at /resources/retention.

Optiv Advantage uses a Section 125 structure, which means qualifying benefit premiums come out of pay before payroll tax is calculated. That lowers the wage base the center and the educator are both taxed on. Here is where the saving becomes concrete, and how it reaches your bank account. Each pay period, whoever runs payroll drops your payroll report into a calculation engine we provide. The engine returns an updated payroll with the benefits already calculated, and it flags new hires and terminations so people are added to or removed from the plan and enrollment outreach starts on its own. Because each educator's qualifying premium is now taken out before tax, the wage base is lower, so the FICA you deposit with that payroll is smaller. You keep the difference. It is not a rebate you wait for and not a check that arrives later. It is simply a smaller FICA deposit on the very next run, which means the cash stays in your account instead of leaving it. That drop-in step is what calculates your reduced FICA each cycle. It adds about five minutes and five clicks, and everything after the drop is handled for you. That is what we mean when we say we do the work. Coverage is provided by an A-rated, state-licensed insurance carrier. Implementation and the full mechanics are covered on the How It Works page.

The plan is built to be felt in the first paycheck and the first time a educator needs care. It pairs a measurable take-home increase with coverage this workforce rarely gets. Virtual Urgent Care connects the educator and family to a board-certified physician around the clock, usually in under 15 minutes, and Virtual Primary Care gives them a dedicated PCP, both with no copay and no deductible. Their Health Maintenance Benefit is included. Optiv Access pairs with the Advantage plan to bring entry-level virtual care to part-time and contingent educators, and its cost nets against the payroll-tax recovery rather than adding an expense.

A measurable increase in take-home pay, modeled to the educator's situation.

Virtual Urgent Care and Virtual Primary Care with no copay and no deductible, for the educator and their family.

Mental-health support through the EAP, which addresses the burnout of demanding classroom work.

Supplemental accident, critical illness, and cancer coverage for a workforce that rarely receives it.

Work Shield workplace-misconduct resolution as a bundled bonus, resolving issues about 80% faster than the national average.

The payroll-tax recovery scales with the number of enrolled educators, and the turnover savings scale with how many stay. Across a 50, 100, or 250-employee center, both move in the same direction and compound every year the plan is in place. Larger operations see larger recovery. The per-employee logic does not change.