Christmas comes early for Goodstart educators

Childcare workers at preschools across the country, including in Cowra, will welcome a few extra dollars in their wallet from this week, following a pioneering multi-employer agreement across 64 early childhood care centres. Goodstart workers voted to approve the new agreement in August, which will begin delivering a 10 per cent pay rise in December under the Government’s Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care program. The preschool workers will be among the first across the sector to receive the payrise, with a further 5 per cent pay increase to start in December 2025. The Goodstart agreement covers 16,000 early childhood educators in more than 650 centres across Australia, including centres in Cowra, Young and Forbes. The Australian Council of Trade Unions calculated that wage increases will result in pay rises for early childhood education and care workers of $103.00 a week from December, increasing to $155.00 a week from December 2025. Together with a likely award wage increase in July, a Cert III educator’s pay is expected to increase by about $10,000, from $54,000 to $64,000. “Early childhood educators provide an enormous service to the community and this pay rise is long overdue. Early childhood educators have been taken for granted for too long and this pay boost comes off the back of years of campaigning that has proven beyond any doubt the quality, skill, and value of their work,” ACTU Assistant Secretary, Joseph Mitchell, said. “For a workforce that has been neglected and taken for granted, this pay boost is long overdue.” Goodstart’s CEO Dr Ros Baxter welcomed the announcement in August, and said it was “cause for celebration – recognising the valuable and vital work educators do for Australia’s children, families and workplaces.” “We expect that [the] announcement will see qualified early learning educators return to our sector, while encouraging others to establish a career in early learning. This in turn will help make more quality child-care places available for families who need it. Goodstart stands ready to roll up our sleeves and work with the government to deliver for the hardworking educators who are the backbone of our sector,” Dr Baxter said. The Federal Minister for Early Childhood Education, Dr Anne Aly said valuing the work of early childhood educators was “crucial” to retaining workers across the country. “A quality early childhood education sector is necessary to support children's learning and development as well as workforce participation in the broader economy,” she said. Despite higher wages, costs of sending children to childcare will be capped under the agreement to a maximum of 4.4 per cent over the next 12 months, in a cost-of-living relief measure designed to support working families. “We note the Government’s decision to impose a cap on future fee rises for the life of the wages agreement. Goodstart believes that with increasing government investment comes increasing responsibility on our sector to deliver for Australian families,” Dr Baxter said.