The pay parity opt-in scheme 

The pay parity opt-in scheme is a scheme provided by the government to support education and care services, including hospital-based, to pay their certificated teachers in line with their kindergarten colleagues. 

It provides higher funding rates to education and care services that opt-in to pay parity, and attest to paying their certificated teachers at least the minimum teacher salary scales described in the ECE Funding Handbook. 

https://www.education.govt.nz/early-childhood/people-and-employment/pay-parity-opt-in-scheme/ 

Eligibility 

ECE and Primary qualified and certificated teachers working in an education and care or hospital-based services that has opted-in are eligible for the minimum salaries described as part of pay parity. 

What is a certificated teacher? 

For funding purposes, ‘certificated teachers’ must have: 

• A NZ ECE or primary teaching qualification and a current practising certificate, or
• An overseas qualification assessed by NZQA as comparable to a NZ ECE or primary teaching qualification and a current practising certificate, or
• A letter from the Teaching Council with a clear ECE or primary “endorsement” (where registration has been gained through the Council’s discretionary pathway), and a current practising certificate.
• Secondary teaching qualifications do not meet the eligibility criteria.

To find out more about pay parity, please see this resource from the Ministry of Education. 

Opting into Pay Parity Tracking in Juniorlogs 

To opt into Pay Parity Tracking and to enable its notifications –  

1. Go to the Staff Settings menu option.
2. Enable Pay Parity Tracking Opt In.
3. Select a notification setting from the available options: 80 hours, 160 hours, or 320 hours.
4. Save.

Two notifications will be generated for each pay parity tracked staff member – once before they are X hours closer to the step completion and the second one is on the day of their step completion. 

You have now opted into Pay Parity Tracking and it will activate additional fields under Staff records.  

How to add Pay Parity Tracking to your staff records 

To add pay parity tracking details 

1. Navigate to the Staff record
2. 2. Select Employment tab

Under the Pay parity section,  

1. Add their Current pay parity step  

1. Effective from date 

1. Previous contributing hours: optional, only enter if applicable.  

Once you have saved the changes, the system will add this teacher to pay parity tracking and you can check their tracking either on the report or within their staff record. 

Once required information is added into these fields, the tracking notifications will be activated in the system. Juniorlogs will also display notifications on the Dashboard under the bell icon when staff members are approaching the next step.  

How do I track each staff? 

For monitoring of Pay Parity Tracking, simply check the report by the same name.  

Roster Duties with Pay Parity Tracking option 

When you opt into Pay Parity – all PAID roster duties will get added towards the pay parity tracking hours automatically. When creating new roster duties, you can choose whether you would like to have this enabled or not. 

Important: 

What is Juniorlogs’ pay parity implementation? 

The method employed for determining steps, hours, and Pay Parity is more akin to a calculator than a compliance tool. Juniorlogs utilises the data inputted into the system and relies on users’ knowledge of the current step a staff member should be at and their progression. In the event of an audit, it is advised that centres possess evidence of work history to substantiate claims regarding an individual’s salary being on a different step or having undergone step changes or skips. 

Is it feasible to monitor the hours of unqualified educators under Pay Parity, considering that these hours contribute to their initial step once they become qualified?  

Yes, you can utilise this tool to track the hours of unqualified teachers towards their first step. Once they achieve qualification, you can make the necessary adjustments in the system to designate them as qualified and continue tracking hours towards Step 2. 

How frequently do the Pay Parity Contributing hours refresh?  

Assuming your contact hours data has been saved, the hours are recalculated almost immediately and for a bigger date range, overnight. 

See also – MoE Guide on Pay Parity