''A teacher is a teacher, no matter which sector they teach in," said Australian Education Union* branch secretary Gillian Robertson. "Whether they be in early childhood, at a TAFE or at a school, they should have parity in their professional terms and conditions." Read more at The Age.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) says the average weekly total cash earnings in mid-2012 for early childhood teachers were $837, giving an approximate annual income of $43,000.
According to the article in The Age "TAFE teachers currently earn $50,856 at graduate level compared with $56,958 for school teachers."
To be fair to these statistics, the ABS information is about an average of all of Australia (this is another issue) and the info from The Age was probably about Melbourne teachers.
*The Australian Education Union has a membership of over 180,000 educators who work in public schools, colleges, early childhood and vocational settings in all states and territories of Australia.
Interesting statistics Lesley...I keep waiting for the early childhood field to be paid better but not sure it is ever going to happen even though I have seen slight improvements over my 15 yrs in the field.
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