Making Early Child Education and Care (ECEC) universal in Australia would pay for itself by unlocking women’s labour supply, boosting GDP and growing government revenues by billions, according to new research from the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work.
Key Findings:
- ECEC funding is lower in Australia than other countries, yet private revenues (mostly paid by parents) are higher. Australian parents currently pay more but get less
- Matching the ECEC funding levels of Nordic countries would generate 292,000 new jobs
- If Australian women had the same participation and full-time employment rates as Nordic women, Australia’s GDP would be some $132b per year higher
- The combined boost to GDP would create an additional $48b in government revenue, more than the cost of providing the childcare services in the first place
“This is a program that literally pays for itself,” said report author and Senior Economist at the Australia Institute, Matt Grudnoff.
Related research
The Economic Benefits of High-Quality Universal Early Child Education