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Pay & Wages

Affinity Education Pay Rates 2026: Educator, Room Leader & Director Pay

3 min read

What Affinity Education workers should be paid in 2026 — the Children’s Services Award floor by classification, casual loading, penalties, and where the Affinity Education enterprise agreements sit.

MC

Leave & Entitlements Specialist · JD, Monash University — Admitted in Victoria (non-practising)

Who covers Affinity Education workers — award or agreement?

Affinity Education Group runs more than 200 centres under the Papilio, Milestones, Kids Academy, Bay Explorers and other brands, and is privately owned. Educators, early childhood teachers and centre directors make up the workforce, with a large part-time and casual component.

Affinity educators sit on the Children's Services Award 2010 and its teachers on the Educational Services (Teachers) Award. Our corpus holds no federally registered Affinity enterprise agreement, so the award ladder below plus the funded educator wage supplement is what your pay should reflect.

The federal awards relevant to Affinity Education roles:

  • Children’s Services Award 2010 (MA000120)
  • Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2020 (MA000077)

Workforce snapshot. In its 2024-25 report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Affinity Education Group Limited declared 6,012 employees — 10.7% casual and 96.3% women, with 364 in management roles. Source: WGEA 2025 Public Data File, data.gov.au (CC-BY 3.0 AU).

Children's Services award floor — educators (1 July 2026)

The Children's Services Award 2010 (MA000120) educator ladder, after the FWC's early childhood work value restructure, is:

ClassificationPermanentCasual (incl. 25%)
Level 1 — Introductory Educator$28.81/hr$36.01/hr
Level 2 — Educator$29.69/hr$37.11/hr
Level 3 — Qualified Educator$32.47/hr$40.59/hr
Level 4 — Experienced Educator$34.65/hr$43.31/hr
Level 5 — Advanced Educator$36.57/hr$45.71/hr
Level 6 — Room Leader$38.25/hr$47.81/hr
Level 7 — Assistant Director$40.00/hr$50.00/hr
Level 8 — Director$46.12/hr$57.65/hr

The government-funded educator wage supplement is paid on top of these award rates by centres that have opted in — it is not part of the award floor. Early childhood teachers sit on the Educational Services (Teachers) Award instead.

Source: Fair Work Commission modern awards pay database, current-operative rates (1 July 2026 annual wage review). Casual figures add the 25% casual loading.

Children's Services award floor — support workers

Cooks, cleaners, administration and other support workers in a centre sit on the award's support worker ladder:

ClassificationPermanentCasual (incl. 25%)
Support worker Level 1.1 (on commencement)$26.44/hr$33.05/hr
Support worker Level 2.1 (on commencement)$26.93/hr$33.66/hr
Support worker Level 2.2 (after 1 year)$27.82/hr$34.77/hr
Support worker Level 3.1 (on commencement)$29.45/hr$36.81/hr

Source: Fair Work Commission modern awards pay database, current-operative rates (1 July 2026 annual wage review). Casual figures add the 25% casual loading.

Does Affinity Education have an enterprise agreement?

As at 6 September 2026, our corpus of 14,141 federally registered enterprise agreements holds no current agreement for Affinity Education. That usually means one of three things: the employer pays on the award (or on individual contracts above it), the agreement covering you is registered under a different entity name (check the employer name on your payslip and search our agreements database), or — for state public-sector employers — pay is set by a state award or agreement outside the federal register. If you have a copy of an agreement that names Affinity Education, it beats the award figures above.

Common early learning pay issues at Affinity Education

The patterns worth checking on a Affinity Education payslip:

  • Qualification not matched to level — a Diploma educator paid at the Cert III level, or a room leader paid as a floor educator.
  • Funded wage supplement not passed on in full to eligible educators.
  • Unpaid programming and documentation time, and unpaid time before opening or after close.
  • Casuals under the minimum engagement or without the 25% loading.

What to do if your pay looks wrong

Match your payslip to your classification in the agreement (or the award tables above), and price any gap with our back-pay calculator. Raise it in writing with payroll or your manager first — most underpayments are fixed at that step. Unresolved, the Fair Work Ombudsman (13 13 94) recovers underpayments at no cost, up to six years back, and your union can run the claim for you. Not sure which instrument covers you? Ask our AI advisor with your role and location.

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General information and estimates only — not legal, financial or tax advice. Always check your specific award, agreement or contract, or a qualified professional, before you rely on the result.

MC
About Megan Cole

Former Fair Work Commission Associate (2021–2024) after two years as a plaintiff-side employment paralegal in Melbourne. Juris Doctor from Monash University (2020). Writes about unfair dismissal, leave entitlements, termination, and enterprise bargaining. Admitted in Victoria, currently non-practising. Based in Fitzroy North.