A pay rise is essential to get more workers into the sector, Thrive Early Learning rep says

Freya Lucas

Aug 17, 2023

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The early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector has more than 10,000 vacant positions, and that factor won’t change until educators are paid more, the Head of Operations for provider Thrive Early Learning has told the ABC.

Thrive Early Learning Head of Operations Melissa Falero told the ABC that the provider pays up to three per cent above award in some of its positions in a bid to attract and retain staff.

"It's no lie that we are seeing a shortage of staffing,” she shared with the ABC's The Business program.

“We have seen many operators really struggling to find staff."

Ms Falero believes that raising the rate of pay for early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector employees is essential to get more workers into the sector.

“It’s not enough,” she said. “The government needs to have more conversations with our union representatives, they need to be really thinking about the attraction of staff.”

When it comes to the number of people working in the ECEC sector, Ms Falero believes the issue is not that there is a lack of trained early childhood professionals, but rather a lack of trained early childhood professionals who want to work in the early childhood sector.

While there was a recent wage rise for all those employed on award wages, including those working in ECEC, the 5.75 per cent raise just simply isn’t enough, many in the sector believe.

For Kayla Cochrane, a Director at Thrive, the amount is “helpful, but insufficient, given the surging cost of living”.

"Anyone would welcome a pay rise, however do I believe that it reflects the expertise of our people, the years of study that our educators dedicate…everything that they do day to day in a highly regulated sector? No, I don't think that it's enough," she said.

"At the end of the day, they're [educators] finding it hard to support their own families."

To read the original coverage of this story, please see here.

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