If you need further support with the gender pay gap toolkit, read through the FAQs below or get in touch with us at GenderPayGap.Toolkit@women.govt.nz.
What is the gender pay gap?
The gender pay gap is the difference in earnings between men and women in the workforce. It can be expressed as a percentage or a dollar figure, and be measured at a job, organisation, industry, and national level.
Why is it important to measure the gender pay gap?
Measuring your gender pay gap helps you identify and address inequalities, improve transparency, and build a fairer, more inclusive workplace.
Are equal pay and the gender pay gap the same?
While both equal pay and the gender pay gap refer to inequities of pay, there are some differences.
Equal pay is the same pay for the same work regardless of gender. Equal pay is covered in the Equal Pay Act, which was amended in 2025.
The gender pay gap looks at the difference in earnings between men and women and gender diverse in the workforce, not only between those who are working in the same job.
What is the gender-ethnicity pay gap?
The gender-ethnicity pay gap is the difference in the earnings between women, and gender diverse employees of a particular ethnic group and the comparator.
For example, wāhine Māori compared to all men.
What is the gender-disability pay gap?
The gender-disability pay gap is the difference in earnings between disabled women, and gender diverse employees and the comparator group.
What is a comparator group?
The group that the data is being compared to.
For example, in the gender pay gap calculation the comparator group is ‘all men’.
How should I collect gender data?
Gender data needs to be self-identified and should be collected in the following categories:
- ‘woman’,
- ‘man’,
- ‘gender diverse’,
- ‘prefer not to disclose’.
Employees should be able to update their data at any time. We suggest that you ask your employees to update their data annually.
How should I collect ethnicity data?
Ethnicity data needs to be self-identified and should be collected using Stats NZ Level 1 categories (European, Māori, Pacific, Asian, MELAA (Middle Eastern, Latin American or African), other, and prefer not to disclose). You can choose to collect data at the more detailed level, but you need to be able to aggregate the data up to calculate your ethnicity pay gaps using the methodology in the toolkit.
Employees should be able to select up to three ethnicities and update their ethnicity data at any time. We suggest that you ask your employees to update their data annually.
More information about collecting demographic data is in the Ministry Toolkit guide.
How should I collect disability data?
Disability data needs to be self-identified and should be collected using the question ‘do you identify as a disabled person?’
Response options should be:
- ‘yes’
- ‘no’
- ‘prefer not to disclose.’
Do not provide a set definition of disability and do not assume anyone is disabled / not disabled. If you include health related questions during your onboarding process, do not use this information to determine disability status.
Employees should be able to update their disability status at any time. We suggest that you ask your employees to update their data annually.
What does the public sector use to calculate pay gaps and is it different?
The public sector uses the components of the Stats NZ calculation but requires agencies to report the mean. Agencies are required to calculate both the mean and median. The public sector excludes the Chief Executive.
More information on public sector pay gaps can be found on the Public Service Commission's website.
What are the consequences of reporting significant pay gaps?
There are no negative outcomes associated with reporting your organisation’s gender, gender-ethnicity or gender-disability pay gap. What matters is the actions you take to address your pay gaps.
Sharing your journey and story will help you to put your pay gap figures into context. There are resources in the toolkit to help you do that.
Understanding and explaining that context is a critical part of your organisation’s narrative. Pay gaps exist for a range of reasons, and it’s good to provide this context. Without it you are unable to start the conversations needed to drive change to become a more equitable workplace.
How was the methodology for the gender pay gap toolkit determined?
The design of the methodology has been led by sector leaders, businesses, and organisations to ensure it met their needs.
As a starting point, we looked at what guidance was already available in New Zealand and internationally and what points of the guidance we wanted to test.
What we found was that, particularly with the New Zealand guidance, there was an amount of flexibility built in that meant results weren’t always comparable. This flexibility was often around the types of pay and who is included in the calculation.
Through engagement and testing with a wide range of organisations we have agreed on a final set of components to measure the gender pay gap, while still making it easy for organisations to calculate.
What do you mean by a ‘median’ gender pay gap?
A median is the middle of a set of numbers.
The median pay gap is calculated by finding the midpoint in all employees’ pay. Half of the employees’ earnings will be above the midpoint and half will be below the midpoint. Often, a median pay gap will be lower than its corresponding mean pay gap.
What do you mean by an 'average’ or ‘mean’ gender pay gap?
The average or mean pay gap is calculated by adding all employees’ rates of pay together and dividing by the total number of employees.
The mean takes into account all of the lowest and highest rates of pay, and therefore reflects the impact of the higher proportion of women working in lower paid roles, and the higher proportion of men in higher paid roles.
Which is more accurate: mean or median?
When calculating pay gaps, using median earnings is recommended as medians are less skewed by very high or very low hourly pay of individual employees.
Working from the middle values (the median) of each group gives us a better picture of the pay gaps experienced by typical workers.
On the other hand, we do know that very highly paid employees in organisations tend to be men, and that the lowest paid employees are often women. Comparing average (mean) earnings earnings can paint an important picture of the pay gap as it shows the relative shares each gender is receiving of all wages paid.
The gender pay gap toolkit uses the median.
However it is best practice to report on pay gaps by both mean and median pay to provide the fullest analysis of gaps in your organisation.
How does this calculation compare to the national gender pay gap calculation?
Both calculations use the median pay, however Stats NZ calculates New Zealand’s gender pay gap as the difference between the median hourly earnings of women and men in full- and part-time work.
It does not include any components of pay that are paid on top of the hourly rate, such as bonuses and overtime.
Is the calculation the same as other countries?
There are some differences between other countries. The common differences are in types of pay and who is included in the calculation.
For instance, the UK includes contractors if they are self-employed (not through an agency), and until this year, Australia has excluded the Chief Executive.
My gender pay gap is in favour of women/gender diverse (a negative percentage), does this mean I don’t need to do anything?
You should still take action to address your pay gap if it is in favour of women/gender diverse to ensure your workplace is fair and equal for all.
Is my organisation too small to measure its gender pay gap?
Any organisation can measure its gender pay gap, but we recommend only reporting wider than your HR and leadership teams if you have more than 10 employees in each group you are comparing.
My gender pay gap has increased since implementing my action plan, why?
Some actions taken to close your gender pay gap may result in an initial increase in your gender pay gap. This is not a bad thing.
For instance, if you have a focus on increasing the number of women in your workforce, it is likely that they would start in lower paying roles or as new graduates. This will increase your gender pay gap initially.
Putting clear career progression pathways around new entrants will close your gender pay gap in the longer term as more women progress higher within the organisation.