- Issue date
- 27 August 2025
Stats NZ announced today that New Zealand’s gender pay gap has decreased from 8.2% in the June 2024 quarter to 5.2% in the June 2025 quarter, which is the lowest since the series began in 1998.
This reduction of 3.0 percentage points is also the first statistically significant decline since 2017.
The data today shows women’s median hourly earnings in the past year have grown to $33.76.
However, pay gaps remain wider for women from some ethnic groups, with Asian women experiencing a pay gap of 10.2%, wāhine Māori at 12%, and Pacific women at 15.8%.
The Ministry for women is currently working on a second iteration of the Gender Pay Gap Toolkit to address ethnic pay gaps. More information will be shared closer to launch later this year.
In the coming weeks, the Ministry will also be updating its Gender Pay Gap webtool, which breaks the gender pay gap down by different factors including industries, regions, age, and ethnicity with the latest data.
Understand, measure, take action
You can access the free Gender Pay Gap Toolkit on the Ministry’s website. It is designed to help businesses measure their gender pay gaps and learn how to take meaningful steps to reduce their gaps.
The toolkit’s key feature is the gender pay gap calculator. It has a standarised methodology to enable all organisations, regardless of size or sector, to meaningfully calculate pay gap data.
Visit the toolkit to find the free online calculator, a downloadable workbook for data preparation, a self-assessment questionnaire to identify actions you can take, and templates and supporting guidance.
Learn from businesses and leaders taking steps in the right direction. Video case studies on the Ministry’s website have businesses talking about their own challenges, opportunities and tangible actions.