Early childhood wages

Worker retention payment

The government will provide funding through a new worker retention payment.

The payment will support a wage increase of:

• 10% on top of the current national award rate in the first year
• 15% above the current national award rate in the second year.

The payment will start in December 2024 and run for 2 years.

The payment is on top of the 3.75% increase to award wages that started on 1 July 2024 following the 2024–25 annual wage review.

Providers will need to apply for the payment. It will be paid in the form of a grant. Grant guidelines will be made available soon.

Timing

Grant applications are expected to open in October 2024, with the wage increase taking effect from December 2024.

Eligibility

ECEC workers who work in a Child Care Subsidy (CCS) approved service will benefit from this funding.

The payment will cover eligible ECEC workers who:

• work at an eligible CCS-approved Centre Based Day Care or Outside School Hours Care service that opts in to the payment, and
• are covered by either the Children’s Services Award 2010, the Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2020 or a state-based ECEC award, or
• undertake the duties included in the Children’s Services Award 2010 and the Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2020.

This includes teachers, educators, cooks, coordinators, room leaders and support workers.

We will consult with the Family Day Care and In Home Care sectors to understand how support can be extended to their workforce.

Conditions

The payment will be conditional on providers:

• limiting fee growth from 8 August 2024
• engaging staff through a workplace instrument that meets grant conditions
• passing on all funding to eligible workers through increased wages.

Fee growth

Funding will be conditional on providers agreeing to limit fee increases. This supports affordability for families.

Providers will not be able to increase their fees annually by more than a set percentage for the 2 years.

Between 8 August 2024 and 7 August 2025, this percentage is 4.4%. A percentage determined by the ECEC Cost Index to be published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics will be applied in subsequent periods.

When applying for the payment, providers must submit a Notice of Charged Fees. Fee growth will be measured against this notice.

Exemptions

We may provide exemptions for services in exceptional circumstances. Exemptions may apply only to providers that can demonstrate fee growth is essential to ensure their financial viability. The grant guidelines will include details on how to apply.

Providers with planned fee increases

To get the worker retention payment, providers must apply the fee constraints for all their services as described.

We will monitor service fees for the duration of the payment.

Workplace instruments

A workplace instrument sets out terms and conditions of employment, like:

• pay rates
• penalties and loadings
• working hours
• leave entitlements.

Some examples of workplace instruments may include:

• a single enterprise agreement
• a multi-enterprise agreement
• an Individual Flexibility Arrangement

The above list is not exhaustive.

Workplace instruments are legally binding. They will give the department assurance that funding is being passed on to workers as higher wages.

The workplace instrument must provide for wage rates that are compliant with the wage rates in the grant guidelines. These will be published in September/October 2024.

Questions and answers

Find answers to questions about the ECEC wage increase.

We will update this page regularly. 

More information

This wage increase recognises the value and importance of the ECEC workforce in delivering high quality ECEC to children.

We will provide more details, including grant guidelines, over the coming weeks. To get information and updates:

• subscribe to our weekly newsletter
• join our Facebook group.