Albanese Government locks in pay rise for early educators while limiting fees for families

Every day early educators help children learn, grow and get ready for school.

It’s one of the most important jobs in the country and they should be paid fairly for that work.

That’s why the Albanese Government funded a 15 per cent pay rise for Early Education and Care Workers.

Today, the Albanese Government is investing a further $3.6 billion over the next two years to lock in this historic 15 per cent pay rise for early childhood educators.

This investment will be tied to a commitment from Child Care Centres to limit fee increases. We want to make sure workers can be fairly paid without the costs being passed on to families.

When combined with our support for minimum wage rises, this will mean $255 more per week for a typical full-time educator and $410 more per week for early childhood teachers, compared to December 2024 when the Government first implemented the pay rise.

For the first time employees in the Family Day Care and In-Home Care sectors will also be eligible for the payment, starting from July. More information on applications and criteria will be available soon.

Keeping costs for families down
This funding will continue to be tied to a commitment from services receiving the payment to limit fee increases for parents.

We are making sure workers can be fairly paid without the costs being passed on to families.

That’s helping to ease cost-of-living pressure while delivering better early learning for children.

This is part of the Albanese Government’s work to make early education and care more affordable, more accessible and high quality.

We also introduced the 3 Day Guarantee this year to make sure every child who needs it is eligible for three days of subsidised early learning each week, no matter what their parents do.

Strengthening safety
The Government will now require services to meet the national safety standard as a condition of the payment.

Today 95 per cent of early learning services are meeting the safety standard, more than ever before, but we want that number to be higher.

From July 2027, if services don’t meet the National Quality Standard when it comes to safety, their funding will be cut or suspended.

Parents deserve confidence that their child is safe in care.

If a service is not meeting the standard that parents expect and children deserve, it risks this funding being cut off.

This requirement builds on the Albanese Government’s reforms to strengthen safety in early education and care.

More educators, lower costs
The payment has worked to bolster our early educator workforce and keep costs for families down.

Since it was announced:

• There are around 20,000 more ECEC workers, about an 8 per cent increase.
• Job vacancies in early education have decreased by almost 31 per cent.
• Fees at centres receiving the payment have grown at around half the rate of centres that don’t.
• The percentage of services operating with a staffing waiver has fallen from 8.9 per cent to 5.1 per cent.
• Use of casual staff by Australia’s largest child care provider, Goodstart Early Learning, fell by 5 per cent and use of agency staff decreased by 69 per cent in the first year of the program.

Quotes attributable to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
“Early educators help give our children the best start in life.

“They do incredibly important work and they deserve to be fairly paid for it.

"Only child care centres who agree to limit their fees for parents will be eligible to receive funding for this wage increase for workers.

“We’re making child care more affordable, lifting standards and backing the people who help shape the next generation of Australians.”

Quotes attributable to Minister for Education Jason Clare
“This is good news for workers and it’s good news for families.

“Caring for and teaching kids is some of the most important work in the country.

“Our early educators deserve every cent they get and this funding locks their pay rise in.

“The payment has worked to bring more people into the early education workforce and to keep costs down for families.

“Turns out if you pay people more, more people want to do the job.

“Over the last year, working with the states and territories, we’ve done a lot to strengthen safety in early education and care.

“We’re taking the next step today, tying this funding to safety standards.

“Nothing is more important than the safety of our kids.

“This will help to make sure safety and quality in early education is what parents expect and what our children deserve.”

Quotes attributable to Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Amanda Rishworth
“Early childhood educators deserve more than our thanks, they deserve a pay rise.

“The Albanese Labor Government changed Australia’s workplace laws to deliver pay rises for early educators and to allow more multi-employer bargaining, especially in undervalued, feminised sectors of the economy like early education.

“Our Government has consistently advocated for a minimum wage rise and for undervalued workers to earn what they deserve and this has led to full-time early childhood educators typically earning $410 more per week.”

Quotes attributable to Minister for Early Childhood Education Jess Walsh
“For too long, our early childhood educators were underpaid, undervalued and overlooked.

“And as a result, they were walking out the door.

“With the Albanese Labor Government’s 15 per cent pay rise, we’re seeing that turn around.

“This helps create a long-term stable workforce, and that strengthens the whole sector.

“Today’s announcement is the foundation of our reforms to improve quality in early education and care and to make it more affordable for families by properly valuing our early educators.”