The teacher pay parity “myth” explained.
If you’ve ever Googled “how much are early childhood teachers paid” – or you’ve just consumed a lot of news over the past few years – you’ve probably heard of the pay parity scheme.
However, because the initiative is quite complex, and descriptions of it on the Ministry of Education’s website are loaded with jargon, you might not fully understand what it is, or how it works.
At MyECE, we’re here to help parents, caregivers and families of children in ECE better understand how the sector works, so you can advocate for better care and education.
That’s why we’ve answered some of the key questions parents may have about the pay parity scheme.
What is pay parity?
Pay parity is a scheme intended to raise the salaries of care and education (also known as ECE, daycare, or early learning ) teachers because care and education teachers have traditionally been paid significantly less than school and free kindergarten teachers, even when they have undergone the same level of training and qualification.
Since 2022, education and care services have been able to receive higher rates of funding from the Government if they agree to pay their qualified, certificated teachers at least a certain amount of money that is somewhat aligned to the base salary scale for school and kindergarten teachers.
Teachers employed by kindergarten associations are paid in line with school teachers’ salaries.
Te Kōhanga Reo have their own pay parity scale which the TKR Trust negotiated for the government to fund.
Homebased care services and Playcentres have been left out of the government funding scheme for certificated teacher pay parity
There are four levels of pay parity for education and care teachers: base, parity, extended parity and full parity. They all have their own salary scales, determining how much teachers at each “step” (depending on their qualification and experience level) must be paid. (More on what these pay rates are later.)
However, because of changes brought in by associate education minister David Seymour, centres do not need to pay teachers on non-permanent contracts (such as those filing in for teachers away on parental leave and those who are sick) pay parity rates and can pay them as little as the adult minimum wage for a worker in NZ.
Why should I, as a parent, care what my child(ren)’s ECE service pays its teachers?
We all know how hard teachers/kaiako work and how dedicated they are.
We, at MyECE, believe that ECE teachers should be paid fairly, in line with school teachers who hold the same qualifications and experience.
Happy teachers, who feel valued, are also more likely to stay at the service. So better pay can lead to better retention.
How much is the average ECE teacher paid?
With base parity, services agree to pay all their teachers an annual salary of at least $57,358 ($27.58 per hour, as at July 2025).
Under parity, ECE operators pay all teachers according to steps 1 to 6 of the full parity scale. (Up to $71,869 or $34.55 per hour).
Services that opt-in to extended parity can cap salaries for experienced teachers, at $85,457 ($41.09 per hour).
The full parity rates go up to $96,820 ($46.55 per hour) for teachers, or up to $115,123 ($55.35 per hour) for those in management positions.
The latest data from the Ministry of Education (from the July to October 2025 funding period) shows that 60% of care and education services pay their teachers according to the full parity scale.
The proportion of care and education service providers that pay their teachers full parity salaries has increased in every funding period.
However, in a sense the very term “pay parity” is a misnomer: even the salaries of the best paid care and education teachers still lag behind school teachers and those employed by kindergarten associations.
In fact, those on full parity rates earn about 7% less than school (and kindergarten) teachers with similar qualifications and experience at pay steps 1 and 3. (Or up to $12,005 per year – the difference at pay step 9.)
For teachers paid at the extended parity rates, the wage gap is even greater – up to 27%. (Or up to $21,974 less per year.)
How do I find out what my child(ren)’s ECE service is paying its teachers?
In order to get funding from the Government, care and education centres have to report what level of pay parity they’re paying their teachers at for each funding period (every four months). The Ministry publishes this data on the Education Counts website, under the section titled Attestation of certificated teachers’ salaries.
Below is data from the July 2025 funding period. For the latest update on your ECE service’s teacher pay decision – ask your service.
