Low-paid workers win 10 per cent pay rise in time for Christmas

Taxpayers will hand over cash to low-paid workers in time for Christmas in a ‘game-changing’ pay deal for the nation’s childcare workforce.

The first pay deal for low-paid childcare workers has been signed off by the nation’s biggest childcare chain.

A 10 per cent Christmas pay rise from taxpayers is in the pipeline for 16,000 workers at Australia’s biggest childcare chain, the not-for-profit Goodstart Early Learning.

Goodstart employees voted on Wednesday to approve a new enterprise agreement that will deliver a 10 per cent pay rise next month – worth $103 a week – with another 5 per cent, worth $52, at the end of next year.

Combined with a likely award wage increase in July next year, educators with a Certificate 3 qualification are set to pocket an extra $10,000, lifting their salary to $64,000.

Goodstart is among 500 childcare providers that have applied for federal government grants to fund the wage increase.

ACTU assistant secretary Joseph Mitchell said the pay rise was “long overdue’’.

“For many who have struggled to meet the cost of daily essentials, it will give more stability to their lives,’’ he said.

United Workers Union early education director Carolyn Smith said the government-funded pay rise would help families with young children.

“Talk to any family that has experience, and they will tell you that early educators are leaving, staff turnover is high, and kids are at risk of missing out on quality education and care,’’ she said.

“These agreements are a game-changer’’.

Early childhood educators and carers stand to pocket at least $10,000 more over the next 13 months.

A Goodstart spokeswoman said the pay rise should remedy staff shortages. “We expect that qualified early learning educators will return to our sector because of the much-deserved boost to wages, while it will encourage others to establish a career in early learning,’’ she said.

“As a not-for-profit, Goodstart has worked hard to ensure our educators have been paid above-award wages, and our fee increases each year primarily go towards improved pay and conditions for educators. But we could not ask families to pay the steep increases in fees which would have been required to provide a pay rise of this magnitude.

“We’re looking forward to passing on this historic pay rise to the educators who do the life-changing work of education every day.”

The Fair Work Commission must approve the enterprise agreement before Goodstart can qualify for the government grant.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said nearly 500 providers had applied for federal funding, which would require them to cap fee increases to 4.4 per cent in the 12 months from August this year.

“Our early educators do some of the most important work in this country but you wouldn’t know that from what they are paid,’’ he said. “The Albanese government’s 15 per cent wage rise helps to fix that and will help us to build the workforce we need to give more Australian families access to early education.”

Childcare operators must pass all the money on to staff, even those already paid above-award wages.

NATASHA BITA