Wage Rise by Christmas
An agreement is being finalised to lock in a 10% wage rise for thousands of early childhood educators this December.
BY HEJIRA CONVERY, KINDICARE
Christmas is set to come early for the 12,000 early childhood educators covered by a wage rise agreement that’s in the process of being signed-off.
This agreement is the result of the first multi-employer bargaining application made under the federal government’s Secure Jobs Better Pay legislation, and it covers 64 major early childhood education and care (ECEC) providers, including G8 Education and employers covered by the Australian Childcare Alliance.
The resolution of the agreement is dependent on a few final details being firmed up, but it’s expected that everything will be completed shortly.
In this event, each of the 64 childcare employers will then put the agreement to a vote of their employees, and assuming they sign off on the 10% pay rise, the agreement will go to the Fair Work Commission to be ratified.
As soon as that happens, the 12,000 educators can count on a 10% pay rise this December – with back pay available if the process is delayed – and this is great news for the educators themselves, and every person wanting the best for our society.
On an individual level, earning 10% more will make it easier for educators to pay for a reasonable cost of living, and feel rewarded for the important and challenging work they do.
This 10% pay rise will also incentivise people to join and remain in the sector, and there’s no doubt that a happy and stable ECEC workforce is really positive for children, families and employers.
We’re also pleased to report that the agreement covering 12,000 educators is just the beginning!
A further 16,000 educators at Australia’s biggest childcare provider, Goodstart Early Learning, are set to benefit from a separate pay rise agreement, which is being voted on next week.
And together, the United Workers Union says these agreements chart a guaranteed pathway for 200,000 early educators to receive the 15% pay increase announced by the Albanese government in August.
This 10% plus 5% pay rise is subject to providers agreeing not to increase their fees by more than 4.4% from 8 August 2024 to 7 August 2025.
However, moves are definitely afoot to raise educators’ wages year-on-year, and we’re looking forward to seeing the two-part pay increase being locked in for our hard-working, influential and very deserving educators.
Stay tuned!