Pay parity changes for early childhood teachers have not been welcomed, writes Alice Neville in this excerpt of The Bulletin.
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An unexpected announcement
Last week, it was revealed that from July 1, early childhood education (ECE) centres will no longer have to pay new teachers pay parity rates, meaning employers won’t have to take into account higher qualifications and relevant non-ECE work experience when determining starting salaries for newly qualified teachers. A notice appeared on the Ministry of Education website explaining the changes, which were made “to support the sustainability of education and care services” and to provide “a simpler system for services to negotiate pay for new certificated teachers in ECE”, but no public announcement was made. A press release from education union NZEI Te Riu Roa said associate education minister David Seymour had told industry bodies of the changes during a meeting on Wednesday.
Pay parity refers to teachers at different education levels being on the same pay scale – primary teachers secured pay parity with secondary teachers in the 90s, and kindergarten teachers followed suit in the early 2000s via their union agreement (kindergartens differ from other ECEs in that they’re usually fully publicly funded, have shorter hours and cater for older children – but teacher qualifications are the same). While it’s different to pay equity, critics of the pay parity changes have been quick to draw parallels. “Why has this government cancelled pay parity for early childhood education teachers, a profession dominated by women who were already reeling from the fact that his government unilaterally cancelled, without notice, their active pay equity claim?” asked Labour leader Chris Hipkins of the prime minister in parliament yesterday. Christopher Luxon responded that pay parity would continue. “All we’re doing is making sure that the owners of ECE establishments get to set the pay rates, not the government.”
‘Cost relief’, but for who?
New teachers weren’t the only ones affected by the changes: a two-year moratorium on ECE centres moving up the pay parity scale was also put in place “to help the government offer cost relief to ECE services while keeping the cost of the change neutral for taxpayers”, according to the Ministry of Education notice. Pay parity for ECE teachers was introduced by the previous government via an opt-in scheme, with centres that committed to either parity, extended parity or full parity pay rates for their teachers receiving a bigger slice of government funding (a 2023 cabinet paper showed the Labour government underestimated the cost of this by $253m, as RNZ reported at the time). The newly announced moratorium “could effectively equate to a pay freeze for many teachers”, said Office of Early Childhood Education (OECE) chief adviser Sarah Alexander in a press release, “because the service providers they work for won’t be able to access increased funding to improve pay for staff”.
‘An unsustainable position’
Currently, 97% of ECE centres offer either parity, extended parity or full parity pay rates, according to Ministry of Education data compiled by OECE. Centres offering full pay parity rates are now in the majority at 55%, up from 42% a year ago. But Seymour said pay parity had been “putting enormous funding pressure” on ECE centres, reported RNZ. It’s a claim backed up by Simon Laube, CEO of the Early Childhood Council, which represents more than 1,500 ECE centre owners and fought the introduction of the pay parity scheme. Last week Laube told Cate Macintosh at The Press that one centre had a $60,000 shortfall this year due to pay parity salary progression requirements. Another Christchurch ECE manager told Macintosh her centre had increased its fees earlier in the year, as “the gap between funding, full pay parity and centre operating costs continues to push centres into an unsustainable position”.
The backdrop of a wider ECE shakeup
Seymour signalled pay parity in ECE could be for the chop in March 2024 and in September, relief teachers were excluded from the scheme. In his guise as regulation minister, Seymour launched an ECE sector review in mid-2024 and in April this year, as the Bulletin reported at the time, cabinet accepted its 15 recommendations to review, merge, downgrade or eliminate the 98 criteria of the ECE licensing system, including requirements for maintaining a constant indoor temperature of 18°C and for holding immunisation records already kept by Health NZ. Of particular concern to some in the industry has been a proposal to remove requirements for qualified teachers, which the Teaching Council said “could significantly affect teacher retention and the overall quality of early childhood education”. An amendment bill will be introduced in July to implement many of the changes. In last month’s budget, early childhood education received a funding increase of 0.5%, which amounted to a cut when inflation was taken into account, said industry bodies. Te Rito Maiaha chief executive Kathy Wolfe said it all added up to fears of a “dark future” ahead for the ECE sector.