Children's Services Award Pay Rates 2026-27: Every Level
Minimum rates under the Children's Services Award 2010 (MA000120), effective from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026.
The short answer
A Level 1 Introductory Educator is paid $28.81 an hour or $1,094.80 a week full-time. A casual at the same classification is paid $36.01 an hour, including the 25% casual loading. On that full-time wage, take-home pay after income tax and the Medicare levy is $48,192 a year, or $1,854 a fortnight.
MA000120 rates by classification.
All 12 classifications, with the casual rate for each and what each one actually takes home after tax.
Children’s Services Employee
1 July 2026 · PR799400
| Classification | Weekly | Hourly | Casual hourly | Take-home a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1—Introductory Educator | $1,094.80 | $28.81 | $36.01* | $48,192 |
| Level 2—Educator | $1,128.40 | $29.69 | $37.11* | $49,380 |
| Level 3—Qualified Educator | $1,233.90 | $32.47 | $40.59* | $53,111 |
| Level 4—Experienced Educator | $1,316.70 | $34.65 | $43.31* | $56,039 |
| Level 5—Advanced Educator | $1,389.50 | $36.57 | $45.71* | $58,613 |
| Level 6—Room Leader | $1,453.50 | $38.25 | $47.81* | $60,876 |
| Level 7—Assistant Director | $1,519.90 | $40.00 | $50.00* | $63,224 |
| Level 8—Director | $1,752.70 | $46.12 | $57.65* | $71,455 |
Across this table, full-time gross pay runs from $56,930 to $91,140 a year, which is $48,192 to $71,455 after income tax and the Medicare levy, or $63,761 to $102,077 once the 12% Superannuation Guarantee is paid on top. Select any take-home figure to open it in the Wage Calculator with that rate already entered.
Classification
1 July 2026 · PR799400
| Classification | Weekly | Hourly | Casual hourly | Take-home a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1.1 | $1,004.90 | $26.44 | $33.05* | $45,013 |
| Level 2.1 | $1,023.40 | $26.93 | $33.66* | $45,667 |
| Level 2.2 | $1,057.00 | $27.82 | $34.78* | $46,856 |
| Level 3.1 | $1,119.10 | $29.45 | $36.81* | $49,051 |
Across this table, full-time gross pay runs from $52,255 to $58,193 a year, which is $45,013 to $49,051 after income tax and the Medicare levy, or $58,525 to $65,176 once the 12% Superannuation Guarantee is paid on top. Select any take-home figure to open it in the Wage Calculator with that rate already entered.
Take-home is an estimate for a single Australian resident for tax purposes with no study loan debt and no Medicare levy surcharge, calculated with the same Wage Calculator used across this site. Superannuation is paid by your employer on top of these rates and is never deducted from them. A casual rate marked * is not published in the award and is the minimum hourly rate plus the 25% loading.
What $28.81 an hour leaves on a payslip.
A full-time week at the Level 1 Introductory Educator rate is $1,094.80 before tax. The ATO weekly withholding schedule for 2026-27 takes $168.00 from it when the tax-free threshold is claimed, so $926.80 reaches your account. Paid fortnightly, it is $1,853.60.
| 38 hours a week | Gross a week | Tax withheld | Take-home a week | Take-home a fortnight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full-time$28.81 an hour | $1,094.80 | $168.00 | $926.80 | $1,853.60 |
| Casual, same hours$36.01 an hour | $1,368.38 | $256.00 | $1,112.38 | $2,224.76 |
Withholding is the payslip figure, not the year’s tax: the schedule rounds each pay to the dollar and leaves offsets to the tax return, which is why it differs a little from the take-home a year above. Super is paid on top. For a different number of hours, the Weekly Pay Calculator opens with $28.81 and 38 hours filled in, and the Overtime Calculator adds hours at time and a half and double time to the same rate, before any award-specific overtime rules.
MA000120 junior rates by age.
The award pays a junior employee a percentage of the adult rate. The percentages below are read from the award text, and the dollar figures are worked out from the adult weekly rate. Each table says exactly how, and which of its figures were checked against rates the award itself prints.
Clause 14.3(b): Junior employees
What each percentage is a percentage of, in the words of the clause: “Junior employees employed as Children’s Services Employee Level 1, Introductory Educator or Children’s Services Employee Level 2, Educator will be paid no less than the following percentages of the corresponding Children’s Services Employee Level 2, Educator rate:”
The same clause also says: “Junior employees employed as Children’s Services Employees Level 3, Qualified Educator, Level 4, Experienced Educator and Level 5, Advanced Educator must be paid at the appropriate adult rate.”
| Age | Percentage of adult rate |
|---|---|
| Under 17 years | 70% |
| Under 18 years | 80% |
| Under 19 years | 90% |
| Classification | Under 1770% | Under 1880% | Under 1990% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 2, Educator | $20.79$789.88 a week | $23.76$902.72 a week | $26.73$1,015.56 a week |
Each cell is the hourly rate, with the full-time weekly rate beneath it. The award prints the percentages. The dollar figures are worked out from them, as follows.
Each weekly figure is the adult weekly rate multiplied by the percentage, rounded to the nearest cent with an exact half cent rounding up. Each hourly figure is that weekly figure divided by the 38 ordinary hours in a full-time week, rounded to the nearest cent.
The award prints no junior dollar figures to check these against. Fair Work’s pay guide may round differently, so a figure here can differ from it by a cent.
Where these figures come from.
Provenance
Verified- Award
- Children's Services Award 2010 (MA000120)
- Effective from
- 1 July 2026
- Consolidated to
- 1 July 2026
- Determinations
- PR810424, PR799280, PR799400, PR799555, PR811403
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-06
- Verified
- 12 of 12 rates against the weekly rate over 38 ordinary hours
Every rate above was read from the award text at the Fair Work award library and then checked a second time by dividing each weekly rate by the 38 hours the award sets as a full-time week, because this award publishes no rates summary schedule to check against. This award publishes no casual hourly rates at all, so every casual figure above is marked * and derived from the minimum hourly rate. The junior percentages were read from the award in the same way. The junior dollar figures are worked out from them, and each junior table says which of its figures were checked against rates the award itself prints. Nothing here is copied from another pay site.
What this page does not cover.
Listed as plainly as what it does, because a rate page that hides its gaps is how the wrong number ends up on a payslip.
Penalty rates
Evening, weekend, public holiday and overtime loadings are set separately in the award.
Junior casual and penalty rates
The junior figures on this page are ordinary-hours minimums. Casual loading, weekend, public holiday and overtime rates for juniors are not worked out here.
Allowances
Every allowance the award sets sits in a separate clause. No allowance figure is published here.
Worker Retention Payment
A service funded by this Commonwealth grant must pay a Level 1 Introductory Educator at least $30.06 an hour from 1 July 2026, 4.3% above the award minimum here. That minimum is set by the Department of Education, not by MA000120, and only grant-funded services are bound by it.
Children's Services Award Pay Rates questions, answered.
What is the Children’s Services Award?
The Children's Services Award 2010 (MA000120) is the modern award covering employers and employees in the children’s services and early childhood education industry. Where it applies, the rates in it are the legal minimum. An enterprise agreement or a contract can pay more than the award, never less. The educator levels a long day care centre, preschool or outside school hours care service uses are worked through on Early Childhood Educator Pay Rate.
What are the pay rates for the 2010 Children’s Services Award in 2025?
This page carries the current rates, which take effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026, not the superseded 2025 table. On the current scale a Level 1 Introductory Educator is paid $28.81 an hour and $1,094.80 a week, rising to $46.12 an hour at the top of that table. Last year’s figures are not republished here, because a page that carries two financial years at once is how the wrong number reaches a payslip.
Are childcare workers getting a pay rise in 2026?
Yes. The rates above are the increased ones and apply from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026, following the Fair Work Commission’s Annual Wage Review. The award had already risen from the first full pay period on or after 30 June 2026 under the gender undervaluation priority awards review, and how the two increases fit together is set out on Childcare and Pharmacy Award Rises. Separately, a service that receives the Commonwealth Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Worker Retention Payment must pay a Level 1 Introductory Educator at least $30.06 an hour from 1 July 2026, which is 4.3% above the award minimum on this page. That is a grant condition set by the Department of Education rather than an award rate, and it reaches only the services that receive the grant. A $3.6 billion extension announced on 17 June 2026 runs the payment to 30 June 2028 and opens it to Family Day Care and In Home Care services that employ their educators, without setting a higher percentage. The extension begins on 1 December 2026, and whether its rates have been published yet is tracked on Pay Changes from 1 December 2026.
Why is the Commonwealth figure $30.06 an hour when the award minimum is $28.81?
Both figures are right, and they answer different questions. $28.81 an hour is the Level 1 Introductory Educator minimum in MA000120 itself. $30.06 an hour is the minimum a service must pay that same worker from 1 July 2026 if it receives the ECEC Worker Retention Payment, a Commonwealth grant run by the Department of Education, which publishes the rate at education.gov.au/early-childhood/providers/workforce/worker-retention-payment/minimum-rates on a page it dated 29 July 2026 and we read on 11 September 2026. The payment is usually described as 15% above the award, but the gap here is 4.3%, because the 15% is calculated on the older classification rates the department defines as the applicable award rates. The award’s own educator classifications were restructured and lifted on 1 March 2026 by the Fair Work Commission’s gender-based undervaluation decision, and the department permits the grant to cover that award increase, so the two figures converged instead of compounding.
Does every childcare service pay the Worker Retention Payment rates?
No. The payment is a grant a provider applies for, not a rate that follows the award. A provider can apply only if it holds Child Care Subsidy approval and runs a Centre Based Day Care or Outside School Hours Care service, or a Family Day Care or In Home Care service that engages all its educators as employees. Preschools and kindergartens are not eligible, and Family Day Care or In Home Care services that engage educators as contractors are not eligible. Where a service is funded, the rates reach workers covered by MA000120 and the Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2020, and workers doing those duties under another instrument. The teachers award minimums themselves are on Teachers Award Pay Rates. Everywhere else the award figures above are the minimum, so the question to put to an employer is whether the service receives the worker retention payment.
What is the split shift allowance for the Children’s Services Award?
The award sets allowances, including for broken or split shifts, in a separate clause from the minimum rates. This page publishes ordinary-hours minimum rates only. No allowance figure is shown here, because nothing ships on this site that has not been read from the award text and checked a second time.
Why are there two rate tables on this page?
The award publishes 2 separate minimum rate tables and both are reproduced above, with 12 classifications between them. Level numbering repeats across the two, so match the classification wording on your contract or roster rather than the level number on its own.
Do the childcare award rates include penalty rates?
No. These are ordinary-hours minimum rates. Evening, weekend, public holiday and overtime work attracts a higher rate set separately in the award, and those rates are not published on this page.
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