10,000 signatures reached
To: Malcolm Turnbull, Prime Minister of Australia
Equal Pay For Early Childhood Educators
We all know that the time for equal pay for early childhood educators is long overdue. It is outrageous that they earn one third less than those educating children just few years older.
A responsible government that values the future of every Australian would have already fixed this injustice.
We call on Malcolm Turnbull to commit to funding equal pay for educators in 2016.
If this Government believes in a fair go and equality it will fund pay that befits the essential role of early childhood educators.
It’s time to value the work of early childhood educators. It’s time for equal pay.
Why is this important?
I am an early childhood educator.
Every day I help shape the future chances and choices of every child I educate.
But today, on International Women’s Day, my colleagues and I did something quite different — and a little scary: we chained ourselves to Malcolm Turnbull's office.
Why? I was born in 1968. One year later, a brave woman called Zelda D’Aprano shocked the nation by chaining herself to Melbourne’s Commonwealth Building to protest against women being paid substantially less than men.
That was almost 50 years ago, yet my colleagues and I are paid one third less than those educating children just a few years older – for one reason: 94 per cent of us are female.
I have been waiting my whole life to have my work valued the same as a man. Educators are fed up. We won’t die waiting for equal pay.
We want Malcolm Turnbull to fix this.
Please stand with us and tell him it’s time to value our work by funding wages that befits our essential and invaluable profession.
How it will be delivered
Educators will publicly deliver this petition to Prime Minister Turnbull.