Pay, leave and personal development

This directory provides information about a variety of topics, including pay, allowances, entitlements and more. More information on these subjects can be found in a staff member’s employment agreement. The conditions of employment agreements must be adhered to.

Level of compliance Main audience Other

Required

  • Boards
  • Principals and Tumuaki
  • Teachers and Kaiako
  • Administrators

Pay

See basic information on pay for principals and teachers and find links to employment agreements.

Pay

Allowances

Most principals and teachers are entitled to be paid 1 or more allowances.

Staffing incentive, isolation and priority teacher allowances

Allowances are paid to principals and teachers employed in schools that the Ministry has identified as needing additional support for recruitment or retention. These are also sometimes called ‘hard to staff’ schools.

High priority principals’ allowance

Isolation allowance

Priority teacher supply allowance

Staffing incentive allowance

Other allowances

Some of the other allowances you may be eligible for are:

Advanced classroom expertise teacher allowance

Associate teacher allowance

Cultural leadership allowance

Māori immersion allowance

Pacific bilingual immersion teaching allowance

Normal school allowance

Principal recruitment allowance

Resource teacher: Learning and behaviour allowances

Specialist teacher allowance and specialist classroom teacher allowances

Special school principals’ allowance

Superannuation for principals and teachers

Your employer’s contribution to your superannuation is currently 3% of your gross earnings. You can choose to contribute an additional 3%, 4% or 8% of your pay.

You may already belong to a superannuation scheme that is closed to new members, such as the:

  • Teachers' Retirement Savings Scheme and the State Sector Retirement Savings Scheme, each with an employer contribution of up to 3% of your gross salary.
  • Government Superannuation Fund, which has an employer contribution of 6.5% or 7% of your gross salary.
  • National Provident Fund, which has an employer contribution of up to 3% of your gross salary.

If you belong to one of the old schemes and KiwiSaver, employer contributions can only be paid to KiwiSaver if the amount paid into the other scheme is less than the KiwiSaver contribution of 3%.

That is, if your employer’s contribution to your other fund is 4%, you will not get any payment into KiwiSaver as well. However, if the employer contribution to your other fund is only 2%, you will also get 1% paid into your KiwiSaver scheme.

See more information about Kiwisaver:

KiwiSaver – Inland Revenue(external link)

For information about other superannuation schemes visit:

State Sector Retirement Savings Scheme – Public Services Commission(external link)

If you have any questions, contact your provider directly.

Leave for principals and teachers

Principals and teachers are entitled to different types of leave. Your leave provisions, including how much time you can take, are set out in your employment agreement.

Leave for principals and teachers

Non-teaching time for teachers

All teachers are entitled to time away from the classroom during their working week. Your employment agreement sets out how much time you’re entitled to.

Non-teaching time for teachers

Professional development

ESOL professional development

We provide resources and professional development support to help teachers and teacher aides develop their skills in working with English language learners.

ESOL professional development

Scholarships awards and funding for people working in schools

Find out about the scholarships, awards, funding and sabbaticals are available to principals and teachers.

Scholarships, awards and funding for people working in schools

Study and sabbatical leave

You may qualify for study leave or sabbatical leave if you’re completing a qualification, gaining another qualification so you can teach a different subject, or taking time off to research a topic of interest.

Study and sabbatical leave

Relocations costs if you are shifting schools

If you are teaching staff and you are moving to work at another school, you may be eligible to receive a payment from the Ministry to assist with the costs of relocation.

Relocation costs if you’re shifting schools

Surplus staffing

Surplus staffing situations in your school must be managed carefully and considerately and meet all legal requirements.

Surplus staffing

Leaving your job

Some of the reasons your employment may end include illness, resignation, retirement, dismissal or redundancy. Your employment agreement sets out your entitlements and responsibilities for each situation.

Resignation, dismissal and retirement

Medical retirement for principals and teachers

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