There are some common terms used in the Gender Pay Gap Toolkit that might be helpful when starting your journey to understand and take action on your gender pay gaps.
Gender pay gaps and the drivers
- Gender pay gap
The difference in the earnings between men, women, and gender diverse employees within an organisation, sector or country. - Gender-ethnicity pay gap
The difference in the earnings between women, and gender diverse employees of a particular ethnic group and the comparator. The toolkit uses all men as the comparator. - Gender-disability pay gap
The difference in earnings between disabled women and gender diverse employees and the comparator group. The toolkit uses all men as the comparator. - Like for like pay gap
The difference in earnings between different groups of employees who are performing the same, or substantially the same, job. - Level-by-level pay gap
The difference in earnings between different groups of employees within each job level, grade, rank, or salary band, but not necessarily within the same position. - Equal pay
The same pay for the same work, regardless of gender, ethnicity or disability. - Pay Parity
The same pay for the same job across employers or workplaces. - Occupational segregation
A pattern where men and women are more commonly employed in a particular occupation or sector. - Vertical segregation
A pattern where men are more prevalent in managerial positions. - Unconscious bias
Implicit attitudes or stereotypes that affect decisions, such as hiring and promotions. - Gender balance
The distribution of men and women within different levels, departments, or functions in an organisation.
Remuneration and types of pay
- Remuneration
Reward for employment in the form of pay, salary, or wages, including allowances, benefits (e.g., company car, carpark, gym membership), bonuses, cash incentives, and monetary value of non-cash incentives. - Base pay
The fixed rate of ordinary pay for a job paid weekly, fortnightly or monthly, including any salary sacrifice. Base pay excludes all additional payments such as benefit or cash payments, KiwiSaver employer contribution, allowances, insurances, club fees, superannuation, variable bonus payments, commission, overtime etc. - Fixed pay
All cash components that are paid regularly and are not ‘at risk’. This includes KiwiSaver or superannuation, fixed allowances such as wellbeing, clothing, car, and accommodation if paid as cash. - Variable pay
All cash components of pay that are not guaranteed. This included overtime, bonuses, performance-based pay, higher duties allowance, on-call pay, profit sharing, or equity pay. This is made up of the amount the employee was paid, not the amount they were eligible for. - Total pay
The sum of base pay, fixed pay, and variable pay. This is the total cash amount an employee receives for carrying out their job. - Pay period
When and how often an employee is paid, for example, weekly, fortnightly, or monthly. This varies between workplaces.
Calculation terms
- Mean pay gap
The average difference in pay between genders. It is calculated by adding all employees’ rates of pay together and dividing by the total number of employees. - Median pay gap
Uses the mid-value at which half the employees’ earnings will be above this point and half will be below. The gender pay gap toolkit uses the median but also encourages employers to also look at the mean. - Comparator group
The group you compare earnings against when calculating a pay gap. For the gender pay gap calculator, the comparator group is all men.
Types of employment
- Employee: a person employed to do any work for wages or a salary under an employment agreement. They can be employed full-time or part-time, permanent, casual, or fixed-term. This includes Chief Executive’s, but excludes contractors.
- Contractor: a person who is self-employed that earns income by invoicing for their services. They do not have an employment agreement.
- Casual: an employee that works when it suits them and the employer. Casual employees have most of the same rights and responsibilities as permanent employees, but the way annual holidays and leave applies is different.
- Permanent: an employee that has an ongoing employment at the workplace and have the full set of employment rights and responsibilities. Permanent employees can be part-time or full-time.
- Fixed-term: an employee with an employment agreement that will end on a specified date or when a particular event occurs.
- Full-time and part-time: Employment legislation does not define what full-time or part-time work is. Usually, 35 to 40 hours a week is considered full-time. Less than 35 hours would be considered part-time.
- Full-time equivalent wage/pay: the wages for a given position if the employee was working full-time.
- Equity partner: a business owner or shareholder who has a financial interest in the company’s success. They share in the profits and losses of the business based on their percentage of ownership.
- Tenure: the length of time an employee has been at an organisation or the length of time an employee has held a particular job.