Worker retention payments for early child education and care providers

Overview

Funding is available from the government to help ECEC services increase their workers wages.

The payment will run for 2 years, from 2 December 2024 to 30 November 2026.

Through the worker retention payment, the government intends for all participating providers to receive funding to cover:

• a 10% wage increase for all eligible staff in the first year
• an additional 5% wage increase for all eligible staff in the second year
• a minimum of an additional 20% funding to contribute towards eligible on-costs (calculated against your base funding).