Salaries

Primary and secondary teacher salaries

When teachers are appointed to positions, their salaries are assessed by the Education Payroll Centre according to their qualifications and teaching experience.

Overseas qualifications are compared to New Zealand qualifications by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). They are then related to a salary grouping according to the groupings given in the collective employment agreement.

Where there is no direct match of qualifications, application on behalf of the teacher is made by the employing school to the Industrial Relations Unit of the Ministry of Education. The discretion of the Secretary for Education is used to approve an entry salary.

Where an overseas teacher is appointed to a state, or state integrated school, full credit for previous teaching service in a state or equivalent school may be approved.  Their assessment form, signed by both the principal and teacher, must be accompanied by supporting documentation on school letterhead, outlining details of teaching service – starting and finishing date and whether service was full time and continuous.  If service wasn’t full time and continuous, then they need to state the total number of days worked.

The following conditions must also be met and documentation supplied to an Education Payroll Centre:

• evidence of a teacher’s qualified status as determined by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). This assessment costs $NZ450.
• evidence of registration by the NZ Teachers Council.  Full credit may only be approved where one of the following categories of registration has been conferred:
• provisional registration
• registration which is subject to confirmation
• full registration.

Documentation outlining the teacher’s service record must also be supplied before an assessment may be made.

Teachers progress annually on the salary scale to the top of their salary group, assuming competent performance as assessed by the employing principal.

This pay information is indicative only. Qualification evaluations are made on the basis of course content and individual attainment, not course length or name. Overseas qualified teachers (and principals) should be wary of basing salary expectation on similar sounding names of qualifications or course duration.

Most overseas teachers are employed on individual employment contracts with conditions similar to those of the relevant collective employment contract.

Overseas teachers should note that sick leave accumulates with years of teaching experience in New Zealand. Therefore, a teacher who becomes seriously ill may have insufficient sick leave in their first two years of teaching in New Zealand.

Primary and secondary teachers in New Zealand have pay parity but their unions, the Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) and New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) negotiate separately with the government and at different times.  More details on the secondary and primary teachers' collective agreements can be viewed below.

Early childhood teacher salaries

There are a wide variety of early childhood education services and pay can vary greatly from service to service:

• If you are considering employment in a kindergarten, kindergarten teachers will have achieved pay parity with primary teachers by July 2007 . This is being phased in over a five year period from July 2002.
• Benefits of this pay parity are expected to flow into the whole early childhood sector. Many early childhood teachers in private teacher-led services have salaries negotiated in individual contracts.

More details of early childhood salaries and agreements can be viewed below.