How much is your current rostering costing you above the NQF minimum? Room-by-room wage variance for childcare operators — built to inform the financial conversation, not replace your compliance system.
Enter your rooms below — kids enrolled, daily fee, educators rostered, and hourly wage. We apply the published National Quality Framework educator-to-child ratios (source: ACECQA) and show the daily wage variance between minimum-required and current staffing. Compliance itself stays with your rostering software and the ACECQA framework.
Childcare Staffing Wage-Cost Calculator
Room-by-room wage variance against the published NQF educator-to-child ratios.
1Centre defaults
2Rooms
| Room name | Age group | Kids enrolled | Daily fee ($) | Staff rostered | Override wage ($/hr) |
|---|
Three steps, one answer per room
Set the centre defaults
Average educator hourly wage (loaded with super, leave loading and workers comp), the standard shift length, and the state where you operate. The state setting drives the 2-3yr ratio difference.
Fill in your rooms
Room name, age group, kids enrolled, daily fee per child, and educators rostered. Override the hourly wage for that room if you have a senior educator costing more than the centre average.
See the gap
For each room: required staff, status pill, daily wage variance in dollars. Plus a centre roll-up with wage-to-revenue percentage — the single number that determines whether you make money.
NQF educator-to-child ratios
Authoritative source for ratios, ECT requirements and state variations: acecqa.gov.au/nqf/educator-to-child-ratios. Trinity’s calculator applies the headline numeric ratios for wage-cost modelling — refer to ACECQA for the complete regulatory framework.
| Age group | NSW | VIC | Other states / territories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Birth to 24 months (Nursery) | 1 : 4 | 1 : 4 | 1 : 4 |
| 25 to 35 months (Toddler) | 1 : 5 | 1 : 4 | 1 : 5 |
| 36 months to preschool age (Preschool) | 1 : 10 | 1 : 11 | 1 : 11 |
| Over preschool age (OOSH) | 1 : 15 | 1 : 15 | 1 : 15 |
Required staff per room is rounded up — if you have 9 toddlers in NSW at 1:5, you need 2 educators, not 1.8.
What operators ask before they trust the number
Does this replace my regulator-facing rostering software?
No. Software like Xplor, Hubworks or QikKids tracks ratios in real time through the day, including sign-ins, sign-outs, lunch breaks, and educator qualifications. This calculator is a planning aid — it tells you whether your headline rostering matches the minimum and what the wage cost looks like. Always cross-check live ratios in your operating system.
Why does the calculator round required staff up?
Because the NQF requires the ratio to be met at all times. If you have 11 preschoolers in NSW at a 1:10 ratio, two educators are required — one doesn’t legally cover the eleventh child. The rounding is the conservative, compliant interpretation.
What about Educational Leaders, ECTs and qualified-to-unqualified mix?
Headline ratios are only the starting point. The NQF also requires at least one Early Childhood Teacher under various conditions (and two ECTs for centres with 60+ places, with caveats), plus the Educational Leader role. This calculator handles the numeric ratio — it does not check qualification mix. Trinity’s CFO clients use this for rostering economics, then layer qualifications on top.
Should I include the Centre Director or admin staff in ‘rostered’?
Only count educators who are actually on the floor counting toward ratio. A director who spends two hours in the office and four on the floor would count as 0.4 to 0.5 in this calculator. The cook, cleaner and admin do not count.
The ‘overstaffed’ flag — is some buffer healthy?
Yes. Most well-run NSW centres run 5-15% above the minimum to absorb lunch breaks, toilet runs, sick days, and the occasional drop-in regulator visit. Anything above 20% above minimum is usually where wages start to outrun fee revenue — and where Trinity’s clients ask us to redesign the roster.
How does my CCS impact this?
Daily fee in this tool is the gross fee charged — what you bill the parent. Child Care Subsidy reduces the parent’s out-of-pocket cost but is paid to the centre as revenue, so for cost-coverage purposes use your gross. Trinity reconciles CCS payments to fee revenue monthly for our childcare CFO clients.
What is a healthy wage-to-revenue percentage?
Across NSW long day care, the well-run centres we see operate at 55-65% educator wages to fee revenue. Below 50% is usually a quality risk (or you have rent and fees fully reset). Above 70% is usually unsustainable without rent relief or fee increases. The calculator surfaces this percentage in the centre roll-up.
Is my data sent anywhere?
No — every number stays in your browser. No analytics fire on the inputs, no cookie is dropped, no result is logged. When you close the tab, the data is gone. We built it this way because rostering and fee data is commercially sensitive.
Childcare CFO — without the full-time salary
Trinity Accounting Practice is Virtual CFO to childcare operators across NSW. Monthly P&L with occupancy and wage-cost benchmarking, CCS reconciliation, BAS, payroll oversight, and a phone you can ring before you make a roster decision. We’ve been doing this since 2003.
Book a free 15-min chat See the Virtual CFO service
Ramy Hanna · Principal, Trinity Accounting Practice · Registered Tax Agent · Fellow IPA, TIA, NTAA · Certified Xero Advisor
Virtual CFO experience across NSW long day care, OOSH and not-for-profit childcare
159 Stoney Creek Road, Beverly Hills NSW 2209 · Established 2003
