The Federal Government has announced a bumper 15 per cent wage rise for childcare workers funded by taxpayers to the tune of 3.6 billion dollars. In return childcare operators will have to rein in rapidly rising fee hikes with a new maximum allowable rise of 4.4 per cent.
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00:00Striding forward from a tough political winter, the PM sought to steady his fortunes by sketching
00:09a new future for the nation's childcare centres.
00:14A precondition for a successful sector is paying workers a decent wage.
00:22The Prime Minister and his ministers were armed with $3.6 billion to fund a bumper pay
00:28rise.
00:29Our early educators deserve a gold medal. They also deserve a pay rise.
00:34Nobody begrudges an increase in the wages of any worker, let alone childcare workers,
00:41but it's not going to be of benefit to the childcare workers if we just see interest
00:45rates stay higher for longer.
00:46The award rate is currently $1,032 for a standard full-time week. A 10% rise in December will
00:53add $103 to that. A 5% lift a year later adds a further $52 to take the weekly wage to $1,187.
01:05It opens up so many opportunities for other women to come into early childhood education
01:09and care and know that their professional skills are going to be valued.
01:13In return for the government funding the pay rise, childcare operators will have to rein
01:17in the soaring cost of care by limiting any fee hikes for the life of the agreement.
01:23It's good for workers and it's good for parents. And at its heart, this is good for education
01:30for the next generation.
01:32I'm Anthony and this is Jason and this is Anne.
01:36With the government examining universal childcare, the nation's children can expect to hear those
01:41introductions a lot between now and the next election.