More early childhood education and care (ECEC) services will soon be able to access the worker retention payment.
From 1 December 2025, services that exceeded the fee growth cap can become eligible for the worker retention payment if they comply with a new combined cap over 2 years.
Previously, services that increased fees by more than 4.4% between 8 August 2024 and 7 August 2025 were not eligible. Now, these services can become eligible if their total fee increase does not exceed 8.6% over the 2 years from 8 August 2024 to 7 August 2026 (and does not exceed 4.2% from 8 August 2025 to 7 August 2026).
Providers can apply for these newly eligible services from 1 December 2025. These services will not be eligible for funding for the first year of the program.
All other services remain subject to the original annual fee growth caps:
- 4.4% between 8 August 2024 and 7 August 2025
- 4.2% between 8 August 2025 and 7 August 2026.
Providers may request an alternative fee growth cap in limited circumstances where financial viability is impacted.
This change will:
- enable more providers and services to participate
- support wage increases for more workers
- help keep fees affordable for families
- ensure services that signed up earlier and stayed within the caps are not worse off than those joining later.
Learn more about the worker retention payment.