Given the importance of quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) and growing demand for ECEC, the widely reported, but less frequently researched workforce issues across international ECEC services are a substantial social, political, and economic problem.

In an effort to build understanding of educators’ experiences of work in ECEC, this online questionnaire study gathered basic foundational data on Australian educators’ workload focusing on educators' work hours and workload demands.

The study is the first to quantify and report on educators’ unpaid hours, which appear to constitute a sizeable component of educator workload. It establishes workload as a significant demand for ECEC educators, confirming that there may be a relationship between educator workload and ECEC quality.

Key findings

• Many educators in this study reported spending a significant amount of time working away from children, experiencing frequent distractions and interruptions.
• Most agreed that they are concerned that children are not receiving enough of their time.
• A substantial majority of educators also agree that their workload hinders ECEC quality, with insufficient time for all their work tasks, which often spread into unpaid hours.