If you are working in the early childhood sector or you are employing people in the sector how do you know if your pay rates are reasonable in the context of the current market?

By Sarah Farquhar (2010)
copyright www.ChildForum.com

Employees want to know what the range in pay is, what benefits others get, whether what they get compares well with others in a similar position, and what points they could use as leverage to ask for better working conditions.

Some employers want to know what other employers are giving their staff so they can offer pay and benefits at the higher end as a way to show their appreciation and build staff loyalty. Whilst other employees want to know what they can get away with paying as this is a normal part of the bargaining process especially in a tight economy when other expenses are going up and revenue may be going down.

Pay Rates are at an All-Time High!

Twenty years ago and more in wage negotiations, the Kindergarten Teachers’ Association Union drew comparisons between pay rates with nursing and other occupations such as the police. An argument was often made that cleaners got paid more than what ‘kindy’ teachers got!  Back then there was no staffing shortage; new graduates were coming out of training only to find a lack of job vacancies. 

That was then and this is now.

It is of no surprise given that the demand for qualified and registered teachers has far exceeded supply for a number of years, that Trademe for example suggests that early childhood teachers are today better off than their primary and their secondary school colleagues (see the table below).  

One reason for substantially higher pay levels in teacher-led early childhood services today is that NZEI (representing kindergarten employees) achieved pay parity with Primary Schools for Kindergarten staff.

The Kindergarten Collective Agreement including wage parity with Primary in turn influenced the terms of settlement contained within the Early Childhood Education Collective Agreement between NZCA representing a number of childcare employers and NZEI. The ECECA has flowed through to influence individual contracts, especially in services that are competing for staff with other services in their region who are party to it or to the Kindergarten Collective Agreement. (Later in this article more information on the collective agreements is provided).

In recent years government policy along with employer fear of negative repercussions if they don’t actively strive to meet teacher registration targets, has created a staffing supply problem; adding further inflationary pressure to wages and salaries. 

Before we go any further it’s important to put in some notes of caution here. 

1. The wage data in NZ nationally can be difficult to interpret. There are so many different ways of measuring and competing measures. One must take care to compare apples with apples, eggs with eggs, oranges with oranges.
2. Comparison of wage rates is made difficult because the early childhood sector is diverse and employment agreements reflect this diversity. One example is the number of hours that full-time work is based on. Another example is whether employees are paid or not during the times that the service is closed for term breaks and when they are not on annual leave. What work experience counts for deciding on the level at which an employee’s pay rate should be set can differ between types of early childhood services and between employers within the same type of service.  
3. To know if you are paying, or being paid, a competitive rate also look to what other employers are paying within your immediate local community. The problem is that referring to national and city-based data on pay rates for guidance has limitations if, for example, a new centre opens in the area and it is seeking to poach staff. 
4. Reports on wages from small groups within the sector, e.g. from a self-selected sample of childcare centre operators, should be read as indicative of their employment arrangements only. 
   In early childhood education one can pick and choose from a range of different types of services to work in, so its important for both employees and employers to find out and know the wage and salary rates (and conditions) across the sector.   

At the present time because of government policy around teacher registration targets people who are registered early childhood teachers have strong bargaining power, if they want to exercise it.

But ChildForum’s analysis suggests that wage rate inflation in the early childhood sector has just about peaked. 

• So what can you expect to receive or be paid depending upon years of experience and qualification level?  
• Will you be able to get a better wage if you swap to a similar job with a different employer? 
• If you are an employer, would you like to know whether your wage bill is likely to continue to increase at the same rate it has in recent years?   

We provide information and discussion on this, and more, below for all ChildForum members. ChildForum members include parents, teachers, and employers from across the whole of the early childhood sector as well as people such as researchers with an interest in ECE.

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