Author: admin

Explore the latest developments concerning $3.6 billion childcare.

$3.6 billion childcare pay deal staves off pay cuts, fee hikes and a strike

Tens of thousands of childcare workers will avoid pay cuts after the Albanese government agreed to double its $3.6 billion election pledge to prop up early educator salaries, due to expire this year.

Funding for the two-year deal to give early educators a 15 per cent pay rise, announced ahead of the 2025 election, was to expire in December. Sixty-thousand workers were facing pay cuts of 5 to 6 per cent, according to the United Workers Union, which was threatening to strike next month if the subsidy wasn’t extended.

A cap on how much providers could hike fees was also due to end in August, leading to calls from advocates for a new deal to prevent further price rises for families.

Government to extend pay subsidy to avoid childcare worker walk-off

The federal government has agreed to extend its subsidy for childcare worker wages by 18 months.  (Pixabay)

Childcare workers will no longer walk off the job in July because the federal government has agreed to fund a 15 per cent pay rise for an additional 18 months. 

The scheme, which affects the wages of 200,000 early educators, would have ran out in November. 

A Fair Work Commission decision on gender-based undervaluation means childcare workers will get a permanent pay rise funded by employers in 2029. 

Childcare workers have scrapped a plan to walk off the job in July after the federal government agreed to fund a 15 per cent pay rise for another 18 months at a cost of $3.6 billion.

Taxpayers to foot bill for another $3.6b childcare wage subsidy

Taxpayers will fund another $3.6 billion in childcare wage subsidies over the next 18 months, after a supposedly one-off injection of the same amount over the past two years backfired, leaving workers exposed to a pay cut unless it was renewed.

The new funding, which will take to $7.2 billion the gross amount spent on childcare wage subsidies in less than four years, will be unveiled by the Albanese government on Wednesday, along with a signature announcement on Medicare, at the same time the ascendant Pauline Hanson makes her first keynote address to the National Press Club.

Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.

For more detailed information, explore updates concerning $3.6 billion childcare.

For more news…