‘You earn more working in a shop than educating children’

College graduates call on Minister to boost salaries

EARLY years educators are asking Children’s Minister Roderic O’gorman to give them a “reason to stay” in the sector as they gather to demand higher wages.

Siptu will host a conference for workers in the Early Years Sector on tomorrow in Dublin’s Liberty Hall to discuss a range of issues, including pay.

The union is calling for the hourly rate of pay to be increased from €13.85 to €15. The conference will be addressed by Mr O’gorman.

Chloe Knox, 22, who will graduate from the DCU’S Early Childhood Education

and Care Level 8 degree course in two weeks, said while Mr O’gorman had implemented “amazing initiatives for parents and children”, he needs to be “more active with the staff side”.

She fears her outlook will be “bleak” when she enters the sector after her graduation.

Ms Knox added: “The pay does not align with the work we are doing. Siptu has done great work getting us those pay deals but it is a bleak future for me, really.

“Did I just go to college for four years, work my ass off [and] for what? Not to be able to survive because of the cost of living in Dublin.

“I have a friend who works in a big supermarket chain. She makes more than I’ll make when I’m working. That is shocking.”

Anna O’toole, 25 works as an early childhood educator in Carlow. She said that burnout in the sector is “insane” due to shortages across the industry. Ms O’toole added: “The amount of people who want to leave the sector because of the low staff [levels] is crazy.

“When you have such high staff turnover and low morale in the sector, it is hard to get up every morning and go and do the job that

you truly love.”