Teacher aide pay equity operational guidelines for schools

Guidance for schools on the implementation of the teacher aide pay equity settlement.  

Pay rate calculator

14 Glossary

Anniversary date

The date marking a calendar year (or years) since an employee started employment.

Education Payroll Limited

Education Payroll Limited is responsible for paying around 97,000 teachers and support staff.

Education Payroll operates an online payroll service for schools called EdPay. For the purpose of clarity in this document, we have called all payroll-related services Education Payroll.

Effective date of review

The date of an annual performance review.

Funding wash-up

Once 2020 data is available, the Ministry will recalculate the initial pay equity funding for schools to determine whether schools have been overpaid or underpaid. 

We will monitor what schools pay their teacher aides. If schools do not pay staff the new pay equity rates, they will be in breach of their contractual obligations, and we will cease to provide settlement funding.

Gender pay gap

The gender pay gap is a high-level indicator of the difference between women and men's earnings. It compares the median hourly earnings of women and men in full and part-time work.

Initial pay equity funding

Initial pay equity funding is the funding schools will receive on 28 August 2020.

It is calculated based on the difference between the pay equity rate and the non-teaching staff rate and multiplied by the total hours paid.

Non-teaching staff pay rate

The pay rate effective from 29 November 2019, outlined in the previous collective agreement.

New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA)

NZSTA is a membership-based national organisation representing the interests of its member board.

NZSTA provides a range of services free to all school boards to support and enhance boards' capability in governance and employment.

NZEI Te Riu Roa

The union which represents teacher aides employed by state and state-integrated school boards.

Pay equity

People being paid the same for doing work of equal value. While two jobs may look very different from each other, they may have skills, responsibilities and experiences which are the same or similar and considered of 'equal value'.

Pay equity rates

Pay rates included in the teacher aide pay equity pay scale.

Pay equity principles

A joint working group was set up to create a set of pay equity principles to guide the raising and resolving of pay equity claims. These principles are based on good faith, in line with New Zealand's employment relations framework.

Point to point

Point to point means that teacher aides will be translated from their current point on the CA pay scale to the equivalent point on the teacher aide pay equity pay scale.

Positions element table

A table outlining skills, responsibilities and duties in the previous CA.

Professional learning and development (PLD)

Opportunities for learning that support the teacher aide's development of skills and knowledge in their role.

These could be through courses, workshops, seminars, or on the job training. These may be offered in school, in Kāhui Ako (Community of Learning), by private providers, polytechnics, universities, or clusters of schools.

SSSCA

Support Staff in Schools' Collective Agreement.

Teacher Aide Pay Equity Claim (TAPEC)

In June 2016 NZEI Te Riu Roa (the union which represents teacher aides), notified the Secretary for Education that because teacher aides are mostly women, their work is likely to be undervalued and underpaid.

The union claimed that this undervaluation meant that their pay rates were unlikely to represent the true value of their work because they were affected by gender-based discrimination, contrary to the Equal Pay Act (1972).

The Secretary for Education and NZEI Te Riu Roa entered into a joint process with the support of the NZSTA to examine the pay equity claim in July 2017. NZSTA represents school boards who employ teacher aides.

The conclusion of the investigation was that teacher aides' pay suffered from gender-based undervaluation and needed to be corrected. NZEI Te Riu Roa and the Ministry entered into a settlement that acknowledges the value of the skills, responsibilities and demands of teacher aide work. 

Teacher Aide Pay Equity Settlement

The settlement resolves the TAPEC claim, provides for pay equity and corrects the identified undervaluation of teacher aides. The terms of the settlement are a recognition of the skills, responsibilities, conditions, demands and degrees of the effort of teacher aide work.

The settlement recognises the significant contribution that teacher aides make to the personal, social and educational outcome of the students they work with.

Tiaki duties

Formally 'dirty work' where a teacher aide is required to clean up a student soiled with vomit, excreta, urine or blood (other than blood associated with minor cuts and abrasions and minor nose bleeds) as part of their duties.

Teacher aide

All employees who routinely perform the work set out in the work matrix table. 

Work matrix

The work matrix sets out the most common skills, responsibilities and demands that apply to teacher aides for each of the grades. The grade, together with the step they are placed on, will determine a teacher aide's pay rate.

See Appendix A.2 for a copy of the work matrix.