Early childhood services are worried a huge pay disparity for their teachers will get even worse if kindergartens get the same big pay rises that school teachers won last month.
They say their experienced staff have the same qualifications as kindergarten teachers but earn about $20,000 less.
And that will get worse if kindergartens succeed in maintaining pay parity with school teachers.
They want the government to increase their subsidies so they too can increase their teachers' salaries.
RNZ education correspondent John Gerritsen has the details.