News

Australian government announces multimillion dollar investment in professional wages starting with the establishment of a Pay Equity Unit to investigate the lifting of wages across the Early Childhood Education and Care sector



The announcement is the first installment to delivering professional wages, committed $300 million funding in the 2013 budget to a special Early Years Quality Fund.



United Voice, the childcare union, says this commitment is a historic first step in ensuring Australia has the professional workforce to provide quality early childhood education and care sector on which families can rely.

Louise Tarrant, National Secretary of United Voice, says “Our members across Australia will welcome today’s acknowledgement by the Government that educators are vital for quality early childhood education and care (ECEC).

“We welcome the Government’s announcement today that:

·It establishes a Pay Equity Unit in Fair Work Australia tasked with finding a long term solution for professional wages for the whole sector.

·It will establish a $300 million Early Years Quality Fund for professional wages in the ECEC sector which long day care centres can access for two years, from 1 July this year.

·To ensure the $300m contributes to quality ECEC without extra cost to parents or providers, measures will be put in place to ensure the funded wage rise goes directly into educators’ pockets, providers will bear no additional costs and parents will bear no additional increase in fees arising from the rise.

“Educators will receive $3.00 to $5.23 an hour ($114 to $198.74 a week) depending on their classification. This funding will make a huge difference to this dedicated but notoriously underpaid workforce. Today many struggle to survive on just $18.58 an hour.

“This first installment in funding professional wages is the critical first step to retaining and attracting the best and brightest to ECEC.

“Most ECEC providers acknowledge a professionally paid workforce is critical to implementing the Government’s highly-acclaimed national quality reforms and to meeting children’s developmental needs. Currently 180 educators abandon the sector every week. Without an improvement in wages, exits will inevitably increase.

“This is a great start. Obviously longer term solutions are required to ensure the delivery of full professional wages for all in the sector which in turn delivers quality and stability for families but this package, given the difficult budget conditions, is a fantastic first step,” says Louise Tarrant.



WHAT EDUCATORS SAY

Big Steps is a campaign to transform early childhood education and care into what it should be – high quality, respected and professionally paid. National Big Steps Convenors Jemma Carlisle, Emily Donnan and Tamika Hicks comment on today’s announcement.

I’m proud to be an early childhood educator but it isn’t easy when your power gets cut off and you have to work two or three extra jobs just to pay bills. It’s disheartening and exhausting. I’m relieved our professional skills are finally recognised with real financial support from the Government. Emily Donnan, Director, Master Kids Childcare Centre, Matraville, Sydney

 

In my 13 years as an early childhood educator, I’ve learned that quality early childhood education and care depend on a fairly paid professional workforce. This funding will help turn around the workforce crisis and will deliver enduring benefits for children without squeezing parents out of the market. Tamika Hicks, owner, Rowville Lakes Early Learning Centre, Melbourne

 

The benefits of quality early education and care are lifelong and widely spread. All children deserve a quality experience and this can only be achieved with a stable, qualified, professional workforce. Jemma Carlisle, General Manager, Early Years @ UNSW University Services

 

ECEC quick facts:

600,000 - number of children

480,000 – number of families

60,000 – number of educators



This victory follows the official re-launch of the social insurance sector of UNI Global Union, called "UNICARE" which was held in Brussels. UNI affiliates from 23 national unions and 17 countries throughout the world participated in the conference.