That ICPA (Aust) requests the relevant Federal Ministers for funding to be sought to address Early Childhood Teacher pay parity to assist with access to early childhood education in rural and remote communities.
Pay parity of Early Childhood Teachers is a significant issue. An Early Childhood Teacher completes a 4 year degree course. In a remote early childhood service, an Early Childhood Teacher can expect a salary of around $85,000. If they maintain NSEA proficient accreditation and elect to work in the Public School System, at a Connected Beginnings School, such as Bourke, in a rural and remote location, the additional benefits they would get compared to working as an Early Childhood Teacher would tally to $114,500 p.a and includes:
- Additional 8 weeks of annual leave valued at $17,500p.a.
- Significantly shorter contact hours per week
- Approx $30,000 additional salary
- Professional mentoring by other Teachers
- Structured Professional development programs ($10,000 pa)
- Access to Teacher Housing/Rural Teacher Incentive $25,000
- Retention bonus $5,000 • Recruitment bonus $20,000
- Climatic, Social and Geographic allowance $3,000
- In addition to the above, there is also the impact on superannuation to be considered $4,000.
Early Childhood services are significantly limited in their budgets. It is important to find long term solutions to address pay parity of Early Childhood Teachers in rural and remote locations.
