The pay equity law change has passed. This is who it impacts

Wednesday, 7 May 2025

Using parliamentary urgency, the Government has rushed through changes to the Equal Pay Act that will make it harder for workers to make claims of unfair pay based on gender discrimination.

After just a day and a bit of debate, the Government’s controversial change to pay equality law has been voted through Parliament.

The law change is expected to significantly reduce the number of workers who can argue for better pay, using a claim of gender discrimination.

Under the previous law, hundreds of thousands of women - mostly working in social services such as education, healthcare and social work - had lodged pay equity claims to argue their professions were being systemically, and illegally, undervalued.

But all of their claims were extinguished late on Wednesday night, after the Government rushed through the law change with little debate and no chance for public consultation. The Government’s haste and motive has been labelled a human rights breach by Dame Judy McGregor, the former Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner.

McGregor said it appeared the law change was being rushed, using urgency in Parliament, because Budget Day has been set for May 22. That’s when the Government outlines how much money it has, and what it will cut or fund.

Associate Finance Minister David Seymour said the law change was expected to save the Government “billions”, and he congratulated the minister in charge, Brooke van Velden, saying she had “saved the Budget”.

More protests are expected after the pay equity law change.

But McGregor said women shouldn’t be the ones paying to balance the Government’s books.

“I think this is a cruel abuse of human rights and I think the Government will pay for it. I don't think women will take this lying down,” the commissioner said.

Through Wednesday, Government ministers faced scrutiny at Parliament about the law change - except Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who was in Rotorua.

In the debating chamber, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said Seymour’s comments had been made in his capacity as ACT leader - not as her associate minister. She has denied that the law change was being made, under urgency, to help with her Budget.

She said that, over time, it became clear the law was too broad and wouldn’t lead to better outcomes.

She said it gave companies an excuse to get away with underpaying women because the previous Government offered to “provide a backstop” to companies that were found to be underpaying their female-dominated workforces.

Labour deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni says Nicola Grigg should resign as the minister for momen after she claimed changes to the Equal Pay Act was 'positive news for women'.

Minister for Women Nicola Grigg also argued the change could benefit women, even though fewer women were expected to be able to get pay increases thanks to this law.

Grigg said this was 'positive news for women'.

Labour deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni said that claim was so preposterous that Grigg should resign as the minister for women.

'It's her against every other woman in this country. She should stand down. Every woman in the coalition Government should hang their head in shame,' Sepuloni said.

As the Government passed this law change on Wednesday, many women in female-dominated professions were planning protests to end the week.

Unions representing female-dominated workforces, such as teaching and nursing, said they would push back.

The law change meant 33 pay equity claims were cancelled. This impacted:

Teachers

The entire teaching workforce, including early childhood, primary and secondary teachers, have made pay equity claims.

The vast majority of teachers are women.

In early childhood, 97% of teachers are women.

In primary, 85% of teachers are women.

In high schools, 63% of teachers are women. That could be an issue for any future pay equity claim, because the Government has changed the law so that the definition of a female-dominated work force would be upwards of 70%.

PPTA boss Chris Abercrombie said they would look at how to restart a pay equity claim in the future.

Support workers, education advisors, and educational psychologists also have pay equity claims.

Social workers

Social workers, youth workers, probation officers and corrections psychologists have all launched pay equity claims.

For probation officers, 68% of the workforce are women. That means they will not be able to restart any pay equity claim.

Nurses and healthcare workers

Hospice workers, Plunket nurses, lab staff and midwives all had pay equity claims in train.

Hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers had followed Kristine Bartlett’s landmark 2012 court, after she successfully argued that she and other rest home workers were being underpaid because they were women.