The federal government has confirmed a further $3.6 billion investment to secure a 15% pay rise for early childhood educators, extending the wage boost first introduced in late 2024. The funding will be delivered over the next two years and applies across long day care, family day care and in‑home care, with the latter two sectors becoming eligible from July.
The government estimates the combined effect of the pay rise and recent minimum wage decisions will see a typical full‑time educator earning around $255 more per week, and early childhood teachers around $410 more per week, compared with December 2024.
Services receiving the payment will be required to limit fee increases, with the government emphasising that higher wages should not be passed on to families.
The funding will also be tied to safety compliance. From July 2027, services that do not meet the National Quality Standard for safety risk having their payments cut or suspended, a measure the government says is designed to ensure public funding supports safe, high‑quality environments for children.
Government data indicates the wage measure has contributed to workforce growth and improved stability. Since the initial announcement, the number of early childhood education and care workers has increased by about 20,000, job vacancies have fallen by nearly 31%, and staffing waivers have dropped from 8.9% to 5.1%. Centres receiving the payment have also recorded fee increases at roughly half the rate of those that do not. Goodstart Early Learning reported a 69% reduction in the use of agency staff in the program’s first year.
Education Minister Jason Clare said the announcement was “good news for workers and it’s good news for families,” adding that early educators “deserve every cent they get and this funding locks their pay rise in”. He said the measure had helped attract more people into the sector and would now be tied to strengthened safety expectations, noting that “nothing is more important than the safety of our kids”.