Businesses Lagging Behind As New Zealanders Demand Compulsory Pay Gap Reporting

Despite overwhelming public support for mandatory pay gap reporting, new research shows many New Zealand businesses are failing to keep pace with public expectations — and in some cases are not prioritising pay gap analysis at all.

National survey results released today show that 74% of New Zealanders agree that medium and large employers should be required to measure and publish their pay gaps, with 36% agreeing and 38% strongly agreeing. When those who are unsure are included, support climbs to 84%. Only 16% disagree.

But despite near-universal access to the necessary data, many organisations have not done the basic work of analysing pay gaps, with 40% never having carried out any gender pay gap analysis. Out of 95% of organisations that already hold the data needed for pay gap reporting, only 43% have up-to-date pay gap calculations.

Dr Jo Cribb, spokesperson for STILLMindingTheGap.nz says the poll overwhelmingly supports the campaign for urgent government action to close gender and ethnic pay gaps.

“This research clearly shows that our business community is not going to address this issue on their own, with more than a quarter of private sector companies saying pay gap work is not a priority. This is despite most New Zealanders wanting pay gaps to be addressed.

Dr Cribb says concern about the gender pay gap remains high, with 74% of women very or fairly concerned, while 80% of women and 68% of men agree pay gap reporting should be compulsory.

She says the only way to meet the demands of New Zealanders to close the pay gap is to make pay gap reporting mandatory.

“There is clear overseas evidence that when businesses are required to report their pay gaps publicly, it drives meaningful action and has seen national gender pay gaps drop by 20-40 percent³.

“It is time for New Zealand to catch up with our international counterparts who are already addressing pay gaps, and it’s time for our businesses to consider the concerns of their staff, their customers and other fellow Kiwis and start analysing their pay gaps.”

“It’s not until businesses measure their pay gaps that they realise they have a gap and then can do something about it. It’s of real concern that 37% of organisations that have not recently analysed their pay gap believe they simply “don’t have one”.

Unsurprisingly, the poll shows women are especially supportive of mandatory pay gap reporting, with 80% in favour of compulsory pay gap reporting, compared with 68% of men. Concern about the gender pay gap remains high: 74% of women say they are very or fairly concerned.

The gender pay gap was 5.2 percent in 2025 but is much worse for some ethnic groups - 12 percent for wāhine Māori, almost 16 percent for Pacific women and about 10 percent for Asian women¹.

The media and finance sectors have the worst record, each showing a 15% pay gap along with professional services. The female dominated healthcare and education sectors have gaps of 14% and 13% respectively, while the male dominated wholesale industry also has a 14% gap.

For Māori, Pacific and Asian women, pay gaps vary widely by sector and are often driven by both gender and ethnicity.

But Dr Cribb says it is also important to celebrate the businesses that highlight transparency as essential for building fair, diverse and high-performing workplaces and have started publicly reporting their pay gaps.

“More than 100 businesses have voluntarily reported their pay gaps through the Mind the Gap registry and all members of Champions for Change – a collective of over 80 CEOs and Chairs from major organisations including Air New Zealand, NZ Post, NZ Rugby and Ports of Auckland – are required to publicly report their gender pay gaps.”

The data can be found here: www.stillmindingthegap.nz/paygapreporting

References:

[1] Talbot Mills Research (2025), STILL Minding the Gap Survey Report,

[2] Ministry for Women (2025) Gender Pay Gap Perceptions and Practices, Data Analysis conducted for the Ministry for Women, Strategic Pay

[3] Ministry for Women & New Zealand Policy Research Institute (2024) Gender and ethnic pay gaps: An industry level portrait of Aotearoa

[4] https://championsforchange.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2024-Champions-for-Change-Impact-Report-10-37.pdf

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