Why childcare workers are walking off the job today

THOUSANDS of childcare workers around Australia are walking off the job today. It’s little wonder. For $21 an hour they’ve got an awfully hard job.

TODAY, at 3:20pm, thousands of early childhood educators are walking off the job. Why? Because their pay is abysmal.

There are more than 80,000 childcare workers in long day care centres across Australia. Together they look after more than 700,000 children, ensuring they receive critical early education, and so their parents can go to work.

Educators study for between 18 months and four years to gain the qualifications they need to do what they do. Many graduate with a HECS debt that exceeds $25,000.

While those with degrees earn slightly more, a huge proportion of our early childhood educators are on very low wages — with many making only $21.29 per hour.

Unfortunately, early childhood education and care is the kind of work that our community assumes staff will do for love, rather than for money. But as Jess Liersch, an early childhood teacher from Melbourne who absolutely loves her job says, “passion doesn’t pay the bills”.

Jess will be walking off the job today “to show Malcolm Turnbull that I will not be treated like a doormat — not anymore”.

She says that, “it’s time we are paid like the professionals we are. Australia would grind to a halt without us. If that’s what it takes. That’s what we’ll do.”

Jess and thousands of her colleagues are demanding a pay rise today but they don’t want parents to have to foot the bill.

They recognise that parents’ are already stretched to the limit in paying for childcare, with many choosing to give up work entirely because it’s just too expensive. Fees of up to $150 a day aren’t unusual in inner-city Sydney and Melbourne. If you’ve got two or three children in childcare full time, a family’s out of pocket costs are likely to exceed $20,000 per year.

Jess and her colleagues want the government to pay. They point to the fact that Australia’s government spends less than 0.5 per cent of GDP in the sector, significantly less than the OECD average of 0.8 per cent. Countries like Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom and New Zealand that place a high value on early childhood education, spend upwards of 1 per cent of GDP on subsidising and supporting quality care.

Cally Condliffe, a centre director from Sydney who studied for four years to earn her qualification and has 12 years experience in early childhood, says there’s a misunderstanding about the nature of educator’s work in Australia.

The media often speaks about childcare like it is a babysitting service, not an investment in education.

Those views are reflected in the community. Earlier this year, Senator David Leyonhjelm, summarised the job of an early childhood educator as “wiping noses and stopping the kids from killing each other”.

Not so, says Cally Condliffe.

“We are required to plan educational, inspiring and meaningful learning programs,” she says. “We are required to assess children’s learning and development, plan objectives for their interests, needs and challenges. We are required to write numerous reports. We are required to manage children’s health and their wellbeing”.

“We are required to respond to first aid situations and illnesses. We work within our communities to support families, connect families to support services and ensure children have access to early intervention services if needed”.

If the wages in childcare don’t improve, the sector is going to loose highly trained staff to other industries. Trish Forster an educator from Tasmania compares her income now to that of her previous position in banking and reflects that her career change just doesn’t add up.

“I used to work for a major bank,” she says. “I started on the phones on just under what I am earning now as a Diploma qualified educator looking after the lives and future of our children. Needless to say, when I left that bank 6 years after starting there, I was on a much higher wage than I am on now and I didn’t need a qualification”.

The gender pay gap remains stagnant at around 15 per cent, with women earning 85 cents in the dollar compared with men. A major contributor to that gap in earnings is the gender segregation of the Australian workforce. That is, most of us work in industries that aren’t gender equal. They’re either dominated by men, or dominated by women. And the industries dominated by women are the ones that attract lower pay.

The long day care workforce is made up of a whopping 97 per cent women, which probably goes some way to explaining the shockingly low wages. Along with the other caring professions including aged care, disability care, social work and nursing, early childhood education is still dismissed and belittled as ‘women’s work’.

What is ‘women’s work’? Well it’s ‘easy’ work, ‘ unimportant’ work. The kind of work that, historically, women always did but never got paid for.

Regardless of history though, Trish Forster, knows just how important her job is. 90 per cent of a child’s brain development takes place in the first five years of life.

As an early childhood educator she has the capacity to shape young minds at this decisive time, as well as provide the opportunity for parents to return to work. She wonders, how on earth, this kind of work isn’t worth paying properly for.

Trish asks: “How would the economy look if there were no educators teaching our children while their parents and guardians go to work to pay the mortgage and keep the economy afloat?”

HOW CAN I HELP?

You can assist by picking up your child from the centre by 3pm. You then have the option of participating in the action that educators will hold in your area that afternoon.

WHAT IF I HAVE QUESTIONS?

If you have questions about the action taking place, or your ability to pick your child up early, please speak to your Centre Director for options.

Jamila Rizvi is writer, radio presenter and news.com.au columnist. Her first book, Not Just Lucky is available now. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter.