Newcastle Teachers Association president and Kotara High history teacher Sean Brown said the plan was "totally unacceptable" and school teachers were feeling "frustrated" and a "lack of appreciation".

"We just see it as a slap in the face," he said.

"We've turned ourselves inside out over the last couple of months to switch from face to face learning to online learning, to return to school to support students when they're at home, and we're now supporting students back at school.

"It just seems like along with other public sector servants that we're not that valued.

"The platitudes are nice at press conferences but it has to be backed up with what we'd expect financially in terms of regular wage rises."

The policy will be applied prospectively, which means workers with agreements already struck will see the one-year freeze applied to the first 12 months of their next agreement.

The school teachers' next two-year agreement will begin in 2022.

"Under the current proposal we are not going to dodge the wage freeze... whether it be immediately or down the track."

Mr Brown said increases had been capped at 2.5 per cent per year for the best part of a decade.

"It's not as if teachers are expecting massive wage increases."

Mr Brown, who has a mortgage and son, said all public sector workers would be looking at cutting their household expenditure.

"They won't be out in the restaurants that hope to reopen and coffee shops, doing that discretionary spending," he said.

"An era of wage freezes will see teachers spending less out of their own pocket on resources for students.

"I would spend $500 to $600 a year and many spend more than that - up to a couple thousand dollars."

He said the policy appeared to be a "kneejerk response" and the government could find the money elsewhere.

"They're making a lot of decisions quickly and on the run and this smacks of another one. It just seems like it's poorly thought out."

NSW Teachers Federation regional organiser Jack Galvin Waight said the "pay cut" meant the loss of thousands of dollars in wages and tens of thousands of dollars through the impact on superannuation savings.

"This is hardly the treatment teachers and principals deserve after the extraordinary efforts they have made to maintain educational continuity for our students during these unprecedented times."

He said the plan "makes no sense" economically.

"Teachers recognise the economic impact of the pandemic but cutting the pay of 400,000 public sector workers removes the benefit of billions of dollars in spending from the wider community which would otherwise have provided a boost to the NSW economy," he said.

"Teachers and principals in the Hunter along with nurses, police, firefighters and all other public sector workers who strive each day to deliver high quality services should not, along with their families, pay the price for the government's budget blowouts."

He said the federation "will consider all industrial, political and legal options in the defence of members' rights".

Federation TAFE organiser Rob Long said TAFE teachers had negotiated a new four-year agreement due to go to a ballot on April 1, but this had been stopped and they were now stuck in a "stalemate".

TAFE staff have not had a pay rise since November 2018.

"TAFE teachers are desperately disappointed," he said.

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