New Zealand's 22,000 teacher aides have won a historic pay equity deal that will lift their incomes by 23 to 34 per cent this year.

The deal, costing about $70 million a year, will transform teacher aides from an insecure group mostly paid only the minimum wage into an attractive profession starting on 88 per cent of the wage of a fully trained beginning teacher.

It also represents a significant step towards closing New Zealand's persistent gender pay gap of 11 per cent between average hourly earnings for men and women.

The teacher aides, who are 86 per cent female, were compared with prison guards, who are mainly male and currently start on a salary of $53,444 - 44 per cent more than a teacher aide starting on the minimum wage until late last year.

The pay equity deal, on top of a collective agreement last November, will lift the teacher aides' starting rate from $17.70 to $21.20 an hour, or $44,096 for a fulltime role, now only 21 per cent behind a new prison guard.