A NEW SURVEY has found over 40% of workers in the early childhood sector are actively seeking employment elsewhere.

The Early Years Professionals survey report was compiled by social scientist Dr Amy Greer Murphy who said today that professionals are still struggling with low pay and insecure working conditions, feel under-valued by society and experience work-related stress.

“The survey shows that 94% of managers found it “difficult or “very difficult” to recruit staff in the past 12 months,” said Dr Murphy ahead of the launch of today’s report.

The survey, which captured the experiences of 2,442 early years professionals, also found that 84% of managers identified pay as “the biggest” or “a significant” obstacle to recruiting staff with the biggest impact of recruitment difficulties being on quality for children (67%) and reducing the number of children that can be cared for (57%).

Over 50% of respondents stated that if they left the sector, it would be directly due to low pay, while 40% of respondents stated they were looking for a job in another sector at the time of the survey.

“We are passionate about our job, but passion doesn’t pay the bills. Unfortunately, more and more Early Years educators don’t see a future for themselves in their profession,” said SIPTU Big Start National Committee member Deborah Reynolds.

“Stress and shortages are massive issues, but low pay is by far the biggest. Budget 2022 did see a big increase in government funding, but educators need to see it in their pocket”.

Of the respondents to the survey, 66% said they were earning less than the Living Wage of €12.90 per hour. One in five respondents said they worked a second job, while 65% stated they regularly did unpaid work, 90.66% didn’t have a work pension, and 63% didn’t get paid maternity leave.

Siptu head of strategic organising Darragh O’Connor warned that unless pay and conditions are addressed soon the sector is “on the verge of a mass exodus”.

“The Government knows this and has provided significant funding in Budget 2022 to fix this problem. The focus now must be on agreeing rates of pay that will make it financially possible for Early Years professionals to stay in the sector.”