A union representing nearly 7,000 Hawaii public school employees other than teachers is claiming that pay equity for many of its members has been thrown out of whack by recent gains for teachers.

The Hawaii Government Employees Association announced Wednesday that some of its school workforce members, a group that includes principals, teaching assistants, custodians, security personnel and others, were having issues of pay inequality ignored by the state Department of Education. Their concerns were raised as teachers stand to receive pay increases under a contract agreement reached Friday that followed pay gains for many teachers granted by the Legislature last year.

”Teachers rightly deserved an increase in their contract,” Randy Perreira, HGEA executive director, said in a statement. “This is on top of substantial pay adjustments last year via ‘compression’ from the state Legislature. Where is the pay equity for the numerous essential school professionals who feed, protect, care for and educate our students?”

HGEA represents about 6,800 members working in public schools in six separate collective bargaining units. All six units have existing four-year contracts running through June 30, 2025.

The union is not seeking across-the-board raises or changes to the contract for its school workforce members, but has been asking DOE to counteract negative impacts on many of its members resulting from the pay class adjustments lawmakers granted many teachers last year and the new contract agreement. Such changes can be made outside labor contracts through mechanisms such as pay differentials.

HGEA contends that in some cases teachers make more than principals. The union also said low pay for educational assistants, who can earn more being a school custodian or working at Starbucks, is a major factor in hundreds of vacancies for that position.

Efforts by HGEA to work with DOE to address these pay equity issues began last year when the teacher pay compression adjustment was being advanced at the Legislature.

Lawmakers, with then-Gov. David Ige’s approval, last year provided about 9,000 of the roughly 13,700 teachers represented by the Hawaii State Teachers Association with $164 million to fix salary shortfalls stemming from being compressed, or increasingly grouped, into certain pay levels and to maintain pay differentials for employees in hard-to-staff positions.

The new tentative contract provides compression fixes for the balance of teachers. It also includes pay increases totaling 14.5% over four years, a big pay boost for entry-level teachers and a new top pay class for the most senior qualified teachers. All these things, according to HGEA, will widen pay inequity gaps between teachers and other school staff.

“These disparities make it impossible for the state to recruit and retain high-­quality employees,” Perreira said. “For the good of our students and the good of our state, it’s time to tackle this crisis. Officials should give the same attention to the rest of the school-level professionals. The teacher contract is only a first step.”

Perreira said DOE officials had been unwilling to discuss the problem since working on the teacher pay compression issue and prior to the union’s Wednesday announcement. After Wednesday’s public complaint, Perreira said he received a text from Schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi offering to talk.

Nanea Kalani, a DOE spokesperson, said in a statement that the department is willing to continue having discussions around the issue, and that Hayashi “is fully committed to making sure the Department recognizes the contributions of all public school employees and provides competitive compensation in recognition of the important work they do to support students.”

Gov. Josh Green, who took office in December and helped facilitate the tentative teacher contract agreement subject to ratification by HSTA members in an April 26 vote, in a statement praised all DOE employees and said, “We want to see improved wages and benefits for members of the Hawaii Government Employees Association who work for the DOE, so we encourage negotiators to work hard and collaboratively across the table from one another, to reach an agreement that both sides are happy to announce to the members and the public.”