$151m pay boost for teachers

Up to 17,000 early childhood teachers are set to receive a substantial pay bump as part of a $320 million package announced by the Government last night.

The $151m for pay increases will bring the minimum salary for qualified early childhood teachers who are not teaching in kindergartens up to $49,862 on July 1, up from $45,491 or $46,832.

This brings their pay more into line with kindergarten teachers.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins made the announcement ahead of Thursday’s Budget, which is expected to mostly focus on the Covid-19 recovery.

It follows a long battle by early childhood education (ECE) teachers to achieve equity between kindergarten and non-kindergarten teachers, something Hipkins said that the Government would fix.

‘‘As we respond to the impact of Covid-19 to our society and economy, the Government remains committed to fair pay for lowerpaid workers, especially the workers who have helped get the country moving again,’’ Hipkins said.

‘‘This funding boost goes some way towards levelling the playing field for ECE centres looking to employ qualified teachers but I do acknowledge that fully closing the gap between education and care services and kindergartens will be a challenge to be addressed over a number of Budgets.’’

Alongside the pay bump is $36.2m of funding over four years for home-based early learning initiatives, intended to lift the quality of the sector.

A relatively small $3.1m will go to the country’s 400 playcentres.

Virginia Oakly, ECE representative for teachers’ union NZEI, welcomed the news as a serious win.

‘‘This is fantastic news,’’ Oakly said.

‘‘We welcome this as a great first step towards pay parity for early childhood teachers following a decade of neglect by the previous government.

‘‘Today’s announcement means that there is now the same minimum rate of base pay for qualified teachers right across the sector.’’