Thousands of childcare workers gifted Christmas pay rise

A childcare giant headed by a former Education Department mandarin will be the first to gift staff a $100 a week pay rise in time for Christmas.

The complexity of the federal staffing grant program is forcing most of the nation’s 200,000 childcare workers to wait months for the extra money.

A childcare giant headed by a former Education Department mandarin will be the first to gift staff a $100 a week pay rise in time for Christmas.

Goodstart Early Learning is the first childcare operator to finalise a grant agreement through the Albanese government’s $3.6bn Worker Retention Payment.

The taxpayer funding will be used to give 17,000 staff in 650 centres a 10 per cent pay rise this month, with a further 5 per cent increase at the end of next year.

However, the complexity of the grant program is forcing most of the nation’s 200,000 childcare workers to wait months for the extra money.

The nation’s biggest providers, the not-for-profit Goodstart and ASX-listed G8 group, are the first to pass on the rise after inking industrial agreements with staff.

Goodstart chief executive Ros Baxter – who is a former federal Education Department deputy secretary in charge of schools – thanked the Albanese government for “unwavering commitment to early childhood education and care and to the workforce that delivers it’’.

“They saw the need, listened to our educators and responded,’’ she said on Thursday. “We are confident this is the first step towards securing long-term investment in our vital early years professionals. Goodstart is proud to be the first large provider to pass the wages boost on to our people.’’

Dr Baxter left her departmental post to take up the Goodstart CEO job in March last year, 18 months before the government announced its wage subsidy.

Goodstart Early Learning CEO Ros Baxter, a former deputy secretary of the Department of Education, has welcomed the pay rise for 17,000 staff. Picture: AAP

“This boost will make an enormous difference to our team members who have been underpaid, and unrecognised, for too long,’’ she said.

“It will also help to ensure that Goodstart and other early learning centres can retain the amazing workforce we already have and attract people to rich and rewarding careers, including those who have left the sector for better pay elsewhere.’’

The government’s grant application system benefits large providers with human resource, payroll and accounting expertise.

However, the childcare sector is dominated by small business owners of one or two centres who may struggle to navigate a maze of industrial relations and accounting requirements to access the money. If centres fail to apply for the wage grants, they risk losing staff to rival providers paying higher wages, in a sector crippled by staff shortages.

Goodstart reported an 8 per cent increase in applications for jobs in the week after saying it would pass on the pay rise.

Just 15 per cent of the nation’s 6227 childcare operators have applied for a share of $3.6bn in wage grants.

The pay rise is not compulsory, and centres must commit to keeping childcare fee increases below 4.8 per cent for 12 months in return for the commonwealth cash.

Centres that fail to win a grant this month can apply next year and use the money to back-pay staff.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said early childhood educators were “some of the most underpaid workers in Australia, and we are changing that’’.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare visits Goodstart Early Learning Centre in the Sydney suburb of Hamilton on Thursday to announce a pay rise for educators.

The pay rise is worth $103 a week for a typical childcare educator earning the award rate of pay, with another $52 a week to be paid next December. For a typical early childhood teacher with a university degree, wages will rise $166 a week from December, with an extra $83 at the end of next year.

Anthony Albanese on Wednesday said if re-elected, his government would guarantee every Australian child access to three days a week of subsidised childcare. He also promised a $1bn fund to build 160 new childcare centres in areas of need.