Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Worker Retention Payment

The purpose of this grant is to provide Australian Government funding to support a wage increase for all eligible ECEC workers from December 2024.

Eligible ECEC workers include:

• workers covered by the Children’s Services Award 2010 and working in a Child Care Subsidy (CCS) approved Centre-Based Day Care (CBDC) or Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) service;
• workers covered by the Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2020 and working in a CCS approved CBDC or OSHC service; and
• workers who are undertaking duties covered by the Children’s Services Award 2010 or Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2020 and working in a CCS approved CBDC or OSHC service but are not covered by these awards (including workers covered by a state industrial instrument, or working in a setting covered by a different award), and these duties constitute the majority of that workers role. 

Trainees who are undertaking a registered traineeship and whose pay and conditions are not covered by the Children’s Services Award 2010 or the Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2020 are not included as eligible ECEC workers. 

To be eligible you must be a legal entity that provides CBDC or OSHC services (a Provider). One Provider may apply in relation to one or multiple service locations (Services) that the Provider owns and operates.