An education in teachers' pay

Money has been poured into teaching at a time when living standards across the country and GDP per capita have declined. (Image: Getty)

Cameron Bagrie

Tue, 28 Oct 2025

Has teacher remuneration kept up with cost-of-living pressure or become more attractive over the years?Regular readers will know I’ve been pushing the importance of education for some time. When the OECD devotes an entire chapter to education in its latest Economic Survey of New Zealand, you know we have issues to address.Appropriate remuneration to entice people into teaching is essential.That is a necessary condition, but not sufficient to improve education outcomes. The problems in education are complex. You will not fix education with...

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