More ECE Centres Join 'Pay Parity' Push, But Even Best Paid Teachers Face Up To 7% Wage Gap With Schools, Kindergartens

More early childhood education and care centres than ever before have agreed to pay their teachers full pay parity salaries – but even these ECE teachers paid at the highest rates are earning up to 7% less than their school and kindergarten counterparts with similar qualifications and experience.

The Office of Early Childhood Education’s chief advisor Dr Sarah Alexander says this shows that at its core ECE “pay parity” is a misnomer.

Just-released ECE salary attestation data shows that 60% of care and education centres will pay their permanently-employed qualified, certificated teachers according to the full pay parity scale.

This is the highest proportion of centres to do so since the then-Labour Government launched the pay parity scheme in 2022.

However, Alexander says: “Calling it pay parity in the first place is hugely misleading. This term gives the impression that ECE teachers are being paid appropriately – they aren’t.”

Under the pay parity policy, care and education centres can commit to paying their teachers according to one of four salary scales: base (step 1 of the scale only), parity (steps 1 to 6), extended (partial) parity, or full parity.

The salary scale they commit to determines how much money they get from the Government. Basically, if they agree to pay their teachers more, they get a higher rate of base per child per hour funding.

However, pay parity rates across all scales have remained static since 2023.

Meanwhile, the Government has increased base funding for ECE in each of the 2024 and 2025 Budgets.

Salaries for school and kindergarten teachers have also gone up twice over this period.

This means that even the best paid care and education teachers earn between 3% and 7% less than their school and kindergarten colleagues. (Or between $2135 and $6266 per year in real terms.)

Teachers paid at the extended parity rates, the next level down from full parity, earn from 15% to 30% less than school teachers. (Or between $8135 and $23,673 per year.)

And the situation isn’t set to improve any time soon, with pay for education and care teachers effectively frozen, after the Ministry announced in May that from last Tuesday education and care centres would not be able to opt-in to higher parity level funding than they are currently on, until at least mid-2027.

Associate education minister David Seymour has also removed the need for centres to pay non-permanent staff according to parity scales. This means qualified teachers on non-permanent employment contracts can be paid as little as the minimum adult wage.

The OECE’s Alexander says the increasing wage gap will worsen the staffing crisis in the sector. This in turn will negatively impact children’s educational achievement.

“Paying ECE teachers less than other teachers who have undergone similar training, and meet exactly the same professional requirements, undervalues their mahi and experience.

“Teachers who work in ECE are not babysitters. They are highly knowledgeable and skilled – with responsibility for educating and caring our youngest (and most vulnerable) children.

“Unless the Government urgently raises ECE teacher salaries in line with the school system, the sector will continue to struggle to retain highly-skilled staff.”

About the Office for Early Childhood Education:

The Office for Early Childhood Education advocates for best practice in the sector, based on what research tells us about what is best for tamariki.

We are not a lobby group and we represent all parts of the sector.

As well as being the national body for ECE, the OECE advises the Ministry of Education and other relevant agencies on early childhood education and care. We are non-partisan.

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