Pay parity: Frequently Asked Questions

We’ve answered some of the most frequent questions you’ve sent us about pay parity. Our progress to full pay parity is powered by ECE Voice - the NZEI Te Riu Roa campaign to win fair pay for all ECE teachers - and NZEI Te Riu Roa union members.

Calcultate where you sit on the pay parity scale below

Talking to your employer about pay parity:
What is pay parity?
What is the history of pay parity for ECE?
What does extended pay parity mean for my salary rate?
How do I work out my starting pay step?
Can previous experience count towards the pay steps?
Calculate your pay parity rate
I don’t think I’m being paid correctly, what do I do?
Has my employer opted-in?
What else do I need to be aware of?
Does the Government expect your employer to give you annual progression?
Can my employer count their KiwiSaver contribution as part of my salary?
What does it mean for teachers on higher pay rates/head teachers?
Information regarding the management steps in the full parity scales
Does the Government expect services to spend the funding only on teachers?
What are the higher funding rates being given to employers?
What about teachers whose employer does not opt-in for the higher funding rate?
I’m a primary trained teacher working in ECE. How does pay parity work or me?
What about qualified relievers in a centre that has opted-in?
What does this mean for unqualified teachers?
What does this mean for kaiako in Kōhanga Reo?
What will a Fair Pay Agreement mean for pay parity?

Collective agreement related questions:
What are collective agreements?
What is the Early Childhood Education Collective Agreement of Aotearoa New Zealand (ECECA)?
The benefits of including your service in the agreement:
Do you have to be in a collective agreement to access these pay steps?
What does it mean for people already on other collective agreements?
How can I discuss my concerns about pay parity with my employer?

If your questions haven’t been answered here, flick them through to the NZEI Te Riu Roa ECE Voice team at payparity@nzei.org.nz.

We’ve also put together some FAQs for employers here.

Pay parity is the same pay for the same work.

In terms of the early childhood sector, it specifically means early childhood teachers being paid the same as their teacher colleagues in the kindergarten, primary and secondary parts of the sector.

In the 2023 Budget, the Government announced funding for full pay parity for early childhood teachers. This is a huge win after decades of campaigning by ECE kaiako and NZEI Te Riu Roa.

Prior to the implementation of this Government’s pay parity scheme, there was no common pay scale or regular progression for teachers working at most Education and Care services. Achieving funding for full pay parity means teachers working in ECE will be paid on par with their colleagues across the education sector. This is an historic win for early childhood and the collective action of ECE kaiako played a huge role in getting us to this point! 

NZEI Te Riu Roa members have long advocated for pay parity for ECE teachers. Kindergarten teachers campaigned for and won pay parity with the base salary scale of primary and secondary teachers in the 2002 negotiation of the Kindergarten Teachers’, Head Teachers’ and Senior Teachers’ Collective Agreement (KTCA).

Around the same time, NZEI Te Riu Roa members working in over 100 community based services made significant progress towards pay parity in the negotiation of the Early Childhood Education Collective Agreement (ECECA). This agreement implemented a pay scale and also set the minimum attestation rate. This means the rest of the ECE sector must offer the same minimum pay rate as the ECECA.

In the lead up to the 2020 general election, the Labour Party promised pay parity for certificated early childhood teachers.

A pay scale towards pay parity was introduced in January 2022 for 6 steps that align with the KTCA.

In Budget 2022, the Government announced extended pay parity with a further 5 steps, creating an 11-step pay scale from January 1, 2023. This also saw an introduction of a minimum rate for Centre Managers.

In Budget 2023, the Government announced funding for pay parity for teachers at the full salary scales set out in the KTCA for teachers and professional leaders. 

To receive these pay parity rates your employer needs to ‘opt-in’ to one of the pay parity scales. Your employer has to attest that they are paying you the rates set out by the level of parity that they have opted-in to. Whichever scale your employer opts-in to they need to pay you the salary stipulated. e level of parity that they have opted-in to. Whichever scale your employer opts-in to they need to pay you the salary stipulated. 

There are three key things you’ll need to work out your starting pay step:
1. Your qualification level e.g. if you only have a degree in teaching, you’ll be Q3, which means you start on Step 1.
2. Your service level, which includes all the hours you’ve worked as a qualified and certified teacher in New Zealand.
3. Previous relevant experience.

Remember, if you’re a union member, you can call or email us for personalised advice and support. You can also join us any time if you’re not already a member!

The kindergarten (and primary and secondary teachers’) collective agreement’s pay scales are based on:  

1. Entry points based on your teaching qualifications   

2. Annual progression (that is, moving up a step each year on the anniversary of your original start date in teaching) – recognising your experience and your growing expertise.    

For example, if you are in your third year of teaching in January 2022, you should be at Step 3 that year, move to Step 4 in 2023, Step 5 in 2024 and reach Step 6 in 2025.   

The Government has confirmed that the qualifications and previous relevant experience set out in the KTCA will apply to teachers in services receiving the pay parity funding rates.

You can see all the ECE sector collective agreements negotiated by NZEI Te Riu Roa members here. 

Yes! There are a range of previous paid work experience that can count towards your pay step if it was in the past 10 years. It is credited as half-service which means one year of service in these roles counts as a half step, so you need to have experience in these roles for 2 years for it to be counted as one step. This is up to a maximum of two steps. If you’ve worked in any of the following, it does count! 

• Voluntary Service Abroad - providing service was in a teaching position while the teacher held a teaching certificate;

• Teacher education lecturers and community education tutors - providing service in a teaching position while the teacher held a teaching certificate;

• Kaiarahi i te Reo;

• Teacher Aides / Kaiawhina;

• Public sector employment with education focus, e.g., Ministry of Education, Early Childhood Development or other Crown Education Agencies;

• Education officer in Government and non-Government organisations;

• Special Education;

• Social worker employed by DSW or Board of Trustees;

• Professional officer of NZEI Te Riu Roa/PPTA/TTANZ;

• Librarian;

• Museum, Art Gallery, Zoo education officers;

• Untrained employees in teaching positions in licensed early childhood education centres including kindergartens and nga kōhanga reo; and

• Family day care co-ordinators in licensed home based early childhood education services.

If you think you’re not being paid the right amount, as a union member you can contact us for personalised support. If you’re not a member yet, you can join! Union members pay fees to fund a team of experts that can tell you what step you should be paid, and help you work out what your qualifications and experience mean for your pay. Being placed on the wrong step could mean the loss of thousands of dollars in income.  

You can search in this spreadsheet to see if your employer has opted in. The 'Parity Attestation Response' column will tell you which steps your employer has opted-in to or a ‘no steps’ for each service listed. If your employer hasn’t opted in yet, they still can! Employers can opt in at three points each year (February, June, or October).  You can find more information on the Ministry of Education’s website.  

If you think your employer has opted in and the spreadsheet says ‘N’ (no) please double check with your employer.  

For more information you can also go to the Education Counts website then click on the Excel spreadsheet under ‘Attestation for Certificated Teachers' Salaries’ to open it, and then click on the tab at the bottom named 'Attestation responses'.  

We are pleased that many employers have decided to opt in to the Government’s pay parity funding, recognising the value of the critically important work ECE teachers do with tamariki every day.  

However, we are concerned about some behaviours by employers. So please be aware and mindful of the following: 

• Some employers are requiring onerous levels of proof to show previous teaching service and relevant work experience. This is creating unnecessary barriers to teachers accessing fair pay.

• Some employers mistakenly believe that they can ask teachers to subtract non-contact time, sick leave, bereavement leave and annual leave from the number of hours they have worked in previous years, presumably in order to put teachers on lower steps than they deserve. This is not acceptable – a teacher’s work hours includes these elements.

• Some employers are only counting qualified teaching service in the past ten years. This is also not correct. The ten year period only applies to other forms of work that is directly relevant to teaching, such as teacher aiding, working as an unqualified teacher or social work.

• Most teachers will find it relatively straightforward to provide evidence of their qualifications and previous service and relevant work experience. However, in some cases the degree of churn in the sector means centres or employers are no longer in operation, accurate records have not been kept, or teachers have service broken as a result of caring responsibilities. This means it will be very difficult for some teachers to prove a detailed account of hours worked. Employers and the parents of our tamariki place a high degree of trust in teachers. Teachers expect a similar level of trust from employers when it comes to information about work experience and service. As professionals, teachers understand that dishonesty about qualifications or experience would breach their own professional standards and code which include “PONO: showing integrity by acting in ways that are fair, honest, ethical and just.” 

• Unless there is clear reason to doubt the validity of a teacher’s claim, employers should adopt a high trust model in relation to their statements about their experience and qualifications.  

• If an employer is to meet the attestation requirements for the higher pay parity funding rate, they MUST follow the Section 3 of the Kindergarten Teachers Collective Agreement in establishing the correct pay step of each teacher. You can read the KTCA here. 

Yes. The Minister said that was critical to it being true pay parity i.e. that someone in their third year of teaching should be on step 6 in three years. Teachers will be able to move to their next salary step on completion of 2080 hours of work (40 hour per week year). The Ministry is clear that there are no performance requirements of teachers for them to move up steps annually. 

There are more details in the ECE Funding Handbook.

Your employer cannot count their KiwiSaver contributions as part of your salary if they have opted into any of the pay parity scales.

If your employer has not opted in and is only attesting to paying Step 1 of the salary scale, your employer may count their KiwiSaver contributions towards your salary, but ONLY if it has been agreed by you. 

See here for more information.

The extended and full parity scales set the minimum salary rates for qualified and certificated teachers and those in management positions, like a centre manager. If you are already paid above these rates, then your employer can and should continue to pay you at these higher rates.

 Services opting in for extended or full parity must also attest to pay teachers in management positions at least this minimum salary. 

A “management position”, in relation to Minimum Salary Scale for Management Positions, means all certificated teachers who are employed to work in one of the three following positions in an education and care service:

K2 - employed to be in charge of a service, and who is not a K3 or K4 employee

K3 - employed to carry out professional support, guidance, and administrative roles, and responsible for the management of K2 employees, under delegation from their employer

K4 - employed to be responsible for the management of K3 employees

An example of an education and care role that typically may be considered a K2 position is a ‘centre manager’. Employees who are employed with some leadership or management responsibilities but are not employed in any of the three above management positions, are not considered to hold a management position. Examples of education and care roles that typically may not be a management position include: assistant manager, second-in-charge, and other teachers with leadership responsibilities but are not in charge of the service. These employees excluded from K2, K3, and K4 must still be paid at least base teacher salaries according to the certificated teachers’ minimum salary scale. 

Employers who opt in to pay parity funding are required to pay registered teachers the pay parity steps, however they can pay you more. The Minister of Education has said that services would have to attest they were paying teachers and professional leaders the rates set out in the Funding Handbook for the level of parity that they’ve opted into. Auditing capacity at the Ministry has also been increased to ensure that the funding is being used accurately.  

A higher funding rate is available for education services who pay teachers according to the extended scale.
The Ministry has published these rates in the Funding Handbook.

NZEI Te Riu Roa believes all teachers deserve pay parity. Pay parity is an essential pre-condition to valuing all teachers for the work they do, and to whakamana the tamariki they serve. While the introduction of pay parity is a historical win for the ECE sector, the optional nature of it disadvantages teachers. If all teachers are to benefit, we need to collectivise – that is, come together to get pay delivered through collective agreements or a Fair Pay Agreement for ECE. Only then can we be certain that funding will all get into teachers’ pay packets and public money will be spent where it’s supposed to be.

The Fair Pay Agreement for Early Childhood Education will set minimum rates of pay across ECE that will apply to all employers and all employees regardless of their opt-in status. We hope to use this as a tool to spread pay parity across the whole sector.

Ultimately, NZEI Te Riu Roa wants to see centralised pay for all teachers wherever they work, rather than bulk funding (the current model). This would remove the existing incentive for employers to pay teachers less to maximise their profit. Until we see that change, collective agreements and the Fair Pay Agreement are the best way to ensure that funding increases designed to lift teacher salaries go directly to teachers.

The Ministry says it has designed the opt-in approach because of the limitations of the current funding system. A review of the funding system was announced when the government introduced the first steps towards parity. The Ministry has been working with NZEI Te Riu Roa and other peak bodies across ECE to develop a new funding model. The Ministry has been consulting with the ECE sector about a proposed new funding model in early 2023, and they are now considering your feedback.  

Primary teachers can expect to be paid according to the rules set out for each tier of parity funding, using the same formula as set out in the funding handbook.

Parity means valuing teaching whatever the age of the learner or the context of the teaching: a teacher is a teacher is a teacher. Qualified teachers are currently leaving ECE to teach in Primary for much better pay; there are also a number of qualified primary teachers who’ve taken a pay cut because they prefer working in ECE. This should not be the case. A universal pay scale will mean people can teach where their heart lies and be valued wherever that may be. This increase should apply to all those with recognised teaching qualification working in ECE. 

When qualified relief teachers work in kindergartens, they receive the pay scale in the Kindergarten Teachers’ Collective Agreement. We believe this should be the same for qualified relief teachers working in services that opt in to get the higher funding band, and across early childhood sector once this pay scale is sector wide.   

Unqualified teachers are the backbone of many services, bringing experience and skills that many services couldn’t function without. What the Government has announced in the 2023 Budget is a pay scale for qualified teachers because the Government has a long-term goal of 100% qualified teachers in services. At the same time, not everyone working in ECE wants to qualify. As with highly skilled and experienced learning support assistants and teacher aides in schools, we believe that people who don’t have teaching qualifications can and should be recognised for the value and skills they bring. Together teacher aides won a pay equity settlement in 2020 that has resulted in a pay scale of $21.84 to $35.72 an hour.

As part of our union’s push for fair pay for everyone working in education, we have already made a pay equity claim for support staff (including teacher aides/unqualified staff in teaching-adjacent roles) covered by the Kindergarten Support Staff Collective Agreement. We hope to use this and our pay equity claim for teachers in all settings to address the low pay of unqualified staff in ECE. 

The Ministry says that a very small number of Kōhanga Reo that operate under ECE funding arrangements will be able to opt into the higher parity funding rates. Additional funding has been allocated to work with Te Kōhanga National Trust to improve pay for all kaiako in other Kōhanga. 

A Fair Pay Agreement for the ECE sector will be an ideal tool for implementing pay parity, as it would mean every ECE service would have to pay the rates specified in the agreement. Learn more about Fair Pay Agreements here.

Collective agreements are negotiated by union members through their union so that there is a legal basis for pay and conditions agreed with employers. NZEI Te Riu Roa encourages all teachers to join their union and work together for collective agreements that will ensure teachers get paid fairly and that public money is going to the right place. In the ECE sector, the Early Childhood Education Collective Agreement (ECECA) already includes more than 100 employers. It is the logical agreement for employers and teachers to join. Please reach out if you would like to learn more about this agreement.  

The ECECA sets the standard for quality early childhood education and care and positive staff-employer relationships in early childhood education (ECE) services.  Any ECE service employer can choose to be a party to the ECECA. 

Teachers in centres can join NZEI Te Riu Roa and come together and ask their employer to join the ECECA.  More than 105 employers are already in this agreement. You can read the ECECA here.

A key use of the agreement (in addition to agreeing terms and conditions for ECE teachers) is by the Ministry of Education for funding attestation purposes.   

Employers say that successful collective bargaining, and the ratification of a collective employment agreement, can improve productivity in workplaces by building workplace relationships. The bargaining process provides a way to exchange ideas, promote parties’ common interests, and manage separate interests effectively. It can be a cost-effective way of agreeing staff employment terms and conditions.  

Employers can find out more about the ECECA and sign up on the ECECA opt-in form here.

• Centre managers, parent committees and employers don’t have to go through the time-consuming process of negotiating agreements with each staff member, or with your employees as a group.  

• Employers can be confident they are meeting sector standards.  

• Negotiating employment agreements as a group is cheaper and easier than negotiating each agreement individually  

• Being part of the ECECA sends a positive message about your service’s commitment to quality ECE and fair working conditions, making it easier to recruit and retain great teachers.  

When the employer and employee negotiating teams reach a settlement, it then goes out to all employers and employees for ratification. Only after this is achieved does the agreement come into force. The ECECA is a minimum rates document, so employers can still offer higher rates or extra conditions to staff if they wish.  

Te Rito Maioha is not a party to the collective agreement but acts as the bargaining agent on behalf of employers who have authorised them to represent them and have paid their bargaining fee. You can find out more about the employer process here.

No, but the intention of the funding increase is that services will have to guarantee they are paying teachers their correct rate on the KTCA scale. However, if you are not in a collective agreement you may be vulnerable to not being placed correctly or fairly on your pay steps. Collective agreements are legally enforceable and a robust way to ensure all teachers in the collective get paid correctly and receive annual progression. With a collective agreement, teachers can also come together and win better working conditions (such as non-contact time) and win regular increases negotiated through bargaining.

The expectation of NZEI Te Riu Roa is that all the current collective agreements in the ECE sector should reflect parity rates.

If services opt into the parity extension and find that the salary steps for steps 6-11 are higher than their current Collective Agreement, then they must pay their teachers the higher rates as per the funding rules.

Members working in kindergartens successfully settled the 2023 KTCA after sustained action, lobbying and negotiation with their employers and the Ministry of Education. It has new, higher salary scales for kaiako and professional leaders, as well as improved working conditions. The Ministry has committed to align the parity pay rates with these new rates, with increased funding to support this increase once kindergarten members vote to ratify the agreement.

NZEI Te Riu Roa has made pay equity claims for all teachers covered by our membership (ECE and primary/area) on the basis that a “teacher is a teacher” and it will be easier to progress the pay equity claim across the whole sector with parity in place. Pay parity also puts the sector in a better place when there is progress on Fair Pay Agreements.

There is no impact on compulsory sector (schooling) agreements. However, the pay parity funding does signal that the Government intends to move the whole sector towards a common pay scale.

While most centres have now opted in to pay parity, members are raising concerns that they are not being paid what they are entitled to or are even facing pay decreases. The ECE Voice team has put together a guide for having conversations about pay parity with your employer.

If your questions haven’t been answered here, flick them through to the NZEI Te Riu Roa ECE Voice team at payparity@nzei.org.nz.