It has led to petitions, protests and the use of an extreme swear word in Parliament. The Government says it will improve the process of resolving pay-equity claims, but critics say it’s an abuse of human rights.
The Pay Equity Amendment Bill is one of the most controversial pieces of legislation to in New Zealand. It became law less than 36 hours after being announced last month, thanks to being rushed through Parliament “under urgency”.
And just two weeks after its introduction pulled the plug on all current pay equity claims, $12.8 billion set aside for mostly female workers in low-paid jobs was taken and “re-directed” by the Government as part of this year’s Budget.
People are angry about the effect the bill will have on women in low-paid jobs – not only those who lost the pay increases they’d been fighting for when their claims were scrapped, but many thousands more who, in the future, want to earn more for jobs considered to be “women’s work”.
Here’s all you need to know about pay equity and the bill’s impact
What is the difference between equal pay and pay equity?
Equal pay means the same pay for the same work, regardless of gender. Pay equity means the same pay for different work with the same or similar skill, responsibility and effort.
Why is pay equity an issue?
Jobs where the workforce is predominantly women – including nurses, care workers and other healthcare staff, teachers and social workers – tend to be lower paid than those where most of the workers are men.
What has been done about paying women fairly?
In 1960, the Government Service Equal Pay Act ruled that government employees had to be paid the same amount for doing the same work, regardless of gender.
In 1972, the Equal Pay Act required the private sector to do the same. In 2012, aged care worker Kristine Bartlett took legal action against the owners of the rest home where she worked, saying she and her colleagues were underpaid because what they did was considered “women’s work”. Kristine won the case and a settlement was reached in 2017, which raised wages for care workers.
In 2020, the Equal Pay Amendment Act was ed unanimously. It recognised that wages were often lower in jobs predominantly performed by women, and legislated for work requiring similar levels of skill, responsibility and effort to be paid similarly, regardless of whether most of the workforce was male or female.
The 2020 Act meant that employees in industries where the work was currently or historically performed by a workforce of around 60 percent female could claim that they were underpaid due to gender discrimination.
Bargaining over the claim included looking at “comparator occupations” that aren’t dominated by women but require similar skills, responsibility, experience and degree of effort. Since the 2020 amendment, more than 100,000 employees in private and public sectors have received pay increases.
What does the 2025 Pay Equity Amendment Bill do?
Some of the changes include:
- Raising the threshold for an industry to be considered female-dominated from 60 percent to 70 percent and requiring this to have been the case for at least 10 consecutive years.
- Requiring “reasonable grounds to believe the work is historically and currently undervalued, including a requirement for evidence”.
- Providing guidance on the use of comparators.
- Preventing claims from being raised again for at least 10 years in cases where there has already been a settlement.
- Removing the ability of the Employment Relations Authority to award back pay.
