Children's Services Award.

Children's Services Award 2010 (MA000120) covers long day care, occasional care, nurseries and childcare centres, family based childcare and in-home care and related industries. Common roles include working directly with children as an educator, room leadership, service coordination and direction, cooking where an early childhood qualification is required. Weekend pay depends on whether you are a shiftworker. Ordinary hours for everyone else run Monday to Friday between 6.00am and 6.30pm (clauses 21.2 and 21.3), so a Saturday is overtime at 150% for the first 2 hours then 200% (clause 23.5(a)). A shiftworker working ordinary hours on a Saturday gets a flat 150% instead (clause 23.5(b)). Sunday is 200% and a public holiday 250% for everyone, with a minimum payment of 4 hours on any of those three days (clause 23.5(c) to (e)). Shift loadings are 110% for an early morning shift starting at or after 5.00am and before 6.00am, 115% afternoon, 117.5% for a night shift that rotates with day or afternoon work, and 130% for a night shift that does not rotate (clause 23.4). The award states no casual rate for Saturday, Sunday, public holiday or shift work, so the casual column above shows none. The only casual penalty it prints is overtime, at 175% for the first 2 hours then 225% (clause 23.2(b)). Casuals may be engaged only for temporary and relief purposes, with a 2 hour minimum (clause 10.5). Up to 1 hour a week of overtime caused by a genuine and pressing emergency, such as a child needing urgent medical attention, is paid at the ordinary rate (clause 23.2(c)). Staff classified at Level 4A on 28 February 2026 are now Level 6 Room Leaders but are paid $1,316.70 a week, less than Level 5, until the first full pay period on or after 30 June 2027 (Schedule I.3). Juniors at Levels 1 and 2 are paid 70%, 80% or 90% of the Level 2 rate, not the Level 1 rate, and juniors at Levels 3 to 5 get the adult rate (clause 14.3). A cook who must hold or be working towards an early childhood qualification is paid on the educator ladder by qualification, not as a support worker (clause 14.1(c)). A university qualified early childhood teacher employed as a teacher is covered by the Teachers Award, and this award's definition of employee leaves out anyone that award covers (clause 3.1). Employers whose primary functions fall under the Education Support Award or the SCHADS Award are excluded (clause 4.1(a) and (d)).

For day workers, Saturday work under this award is paid as overtime, not as a penalty rate, at these rates (clauses 21.2, 21.3 and 23.5(a)). Full-time and part-time employees are paid 150% of their base hourly rate for the first 2 hours worked on Saturday, then 200% for any hours after that. Casual employees receive a rate this award does not state, so check the FWO pay calculator for your classification. Not every Saturday hour is paid at that rate: Shiftworkers, ordinary hours on a Saturday, 150%, with no casual rate stated (clause 23.5(b), a flat 150% with no 2 hour split).

FT/PT employees are paid 200% of the base hourly rate (2.00x) for Sunday work. Casuals receive a rate this award does not state, so check the FWO pay calculator for your classification.

FT/PT employees who work on a gazetted public holiday are paid 250% of the base hourly rate (2.50x). Casuals receive a rate this award does not state, so check the FWO pay calculator for your classification. Employees who don't work the holiday receive their ordinary day's pay if it would otherwise have been a working day.

Standard full-time employees get 4 weeks of paid annual leave per year under the NES. An employee on shiftwork who is required to work a roster on Sundays and public holidays gets a 5th week of annual leave (clause 24.2). The test is the roster, not a 24 hour, 7 day operation, and day workers do not qualify. Their excessive accrual threshold is 10 weeks rather than 8 (clause 24.5(a)). The 5-week entitlement comes from NES s.87(1)(b), which the Children's Services Award classifies eligibility for. Calculate annual leave accrual →

Day workers get a flat 17.5% on the minimum hourly rate. Shift workers get the same flat 17.5%. Leave loading calculator →

25% on top of the base hourly rate, paid in place of entitlements a casual does not get, such as paid annual leave and paid personal/carer's leave. This award does not state a casual rate for every penalty, so the penalty table shows no casual figure for those hours rather than a guess.

Yes. One option, not automatic. Clause 21.4(a) lets the 38 hour week be rostered in four ways: shorter days, shorter hours on one or more days, rostering employees off on various days of the cycle, or accumulating rostered days off with no more than 5 taken consecutively. Without agreement at the workplace, the dispute resolution clause applies (clause 21.4(b)). A full-time employee whose rostered day off falls on a public holiday gets an extra day's pay, an alternative day off within 28 days, or an extra day of annual leave (clause 27.4(a)). RDOs are paid days off, distinct from annual leave; they exist to balance ordinary hours over a fixed period. If you are paid out on termination, accrued RDO time is typically included.

Yes. Under this award, evening work shift finishing after 6.30pm and at or before midnight attracts 115% of the base hourly rate (1.15x); night-shift work attracts 117.5% of the base hourly rate (1.18x); permanent night shift attracts 130% of the base hourly rate (1.30x). For casuals, the penalty table shows no casual shift rate for this award: see the coverage notes.

The Fair Work Commission reviews award minimum rates each year in the Annual Wage Review. The rates on this page took effect from 1 July 2026. The official source is the FWO Pay Calculator, which always reflects the current rates. Open the FWO Pay Calculator →