The latest pay offer to teachers is more of an increase in one pay round than they got in three under the previous Government, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said.
Ms Ardern said the offer was a substantial one at over half a billion dollars and includes issues like extra non-contact time.
The deal is a 9.3 per cent increase, which equates to about $7000 for the average teacher, she said.
Teachers will now vote on further industrial action in November.
"All in all, a bigger offer in that sense in one pay round than what was offered by the last government across three pay rounds," she said.
"That’s what’s on the table and it’s now up to teachers to determine whether or not that’s going to be accepted."
"We hope that it will be enough to get teachers across the line."
Ms Ardern added that they would not be able to resolve the issues in education in one pay round and that pointing to the surplus as evidence of full Government coffers was unfair.
"The message of course that I have to share and I keep sharing, we know there are a huge amount of issues in education that we need to resolve," she said.
"We know that, and it’s not just about pay, but it is going to take us a little bit of time, we won’t resolve everything in one round."
"Anything we do with pay, we have to make sure we can continue on year-on-year-on-year."
"Keep in mind that we have $57 billion worth of debt that we’re trying to reduce down."
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