THE HON JASON CLARE MP
MINISTER FOR EDUCATION

THE HON AMANDA RISHWORTH MP
MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS

SENATOR THE HON DR JESS WALSH
MINISTER FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
MINISTER FOR YOUTH

The Albanese Labor Government has delivered a historic 15 per cent pay rise for early childhood educators, with the final five per cent hitting educators pay packets today.

This will mean an extra $160 per week in educators’ pockets. When combined with our support for minimum wage rises, this means wages are up by $200 per week for a typical full-time ECEC educator and $316 per week for an early childhood teacher compared to the award rates a year ago.

Educators received the first 10 per cent of this pay rise last December, and 200,000 educators are already supported under the Government’s historic $3.6 billion investment.

This pay rise is designed to attract and retain high-quality educators in a sector that is critical to Australia’s future.

And we are already seeing this wage rise pay dividends in the sector:

• The number of educators is up 6 per cent (15,100 more educators from August 2024 to August 2025).
• Vacancy rates are down 14 per cent from October 2024 to October 2025.
• Staffing waivers are down 9 per cent from October 2024 to October 2025.
• And one large provider, Goodstart, has reported a 5 per cent reduction in the use of casuals, and a 70 per cent reduction in the use of labour hire.

This has turned around the workforce crisis, where we inherited record high vacancy rates, burnout, casualisation, and chronic low pay.

We are strengthening the early education and care workforce – because a quality workforce is the foundation of quality early learning.

To help keep out-of-pocket expenses down, eligibility for the Worker Retention Payment is linked to a cap on fee increases.

This supports a wage increase for more workers while keeping fees affordable for families.