Early childhood education and care (ECEC) providers can now apply for a worker retention payment to give eligible workers a 15% wage increase over 2 years.
The Australian Government is providing $3.6 billion for the payment which will support a wage increase of 15% over 2 years including:
- 10% on top of the current national award rates in the first year
- an additional 5% in the second year.
ECEC providers opt-in by applying for the payment and meeting conditions. The payment will be issued to eligible providers through a grant agreement.
The payment will be conditional on providers:
- limiting fee growth
- engaging workers through a workplace instrument that meets grant conditions
- passing all funding on to eligible workers through increased wages.
Minister for Early Childhood Education, the Hon Dr Anne Aly MP said:
“Properly valuing the early childhood education and care workforce is crucial to attracting and retaining workers and vital to achieving the quality universal early learning sector Australian families deserve.
“A quality early childhood education sector is necessary to support children's learning and development as well as workforce participation in the broader economy – particularly for women.
“I urge all eligible early learning services to sign up to this important initiative, so their hardworking staff get the full benefit of this wage increase.”
Providers can apply at any time before 30 September 2026. First regular payments will be made to eligible providers in January 2025.
Find out more about the worker retention payment.