We have all the pay gap data we need to act

Friday, 12 December 2025

Jo Cribb is the campaign leader for STILL Minding the Gap, who are calling for mandatory pay gap reporting.

OPINION: When 80% of New Zealand women want the government to do something, it’s a brave government that ignores them.

That’s the percentage of women, according to a recent poll, who want this Government to require medium and large businesses to publish their gender pay gaps. Eighty percent is also the percentage of women who expect the Government to take action to reduce the gender pay gap.

Across all New Zealanders, 74% of us want the Government to make pay gap reporting mandatory.

I’m not sure I have come across a policy with such universal support. Only 5% of us strongly disagree with mandatory pay gap reporting.

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The picture for the Government gets even more compelling. It’s not going to take much to legislate. There is a member’s bill waiting for 61 MPs’ support.

In these tough economic times, it’s not going to cost businesses because, according to research by the Ministry for Women, 95% of them already have the data needed to report. Nearly zip compliance costs, then.

And yes, if businesses find unjustified large pay gaps, they will likely choose to address them rather than having to defend them publicly. Unjustified pay gaps, that is, not ones based on skills, experience or performance.

But even though nearly every business has the data necessary to report, only 43% have a current calculation of their pay gap. Forty percent have never used their data to calculate their pay gaps.

More than a third of those haven’t done so because they don’t believe they have one. International evidence proves that assumption wrong, with most businesses reporting gaps after their countries made it compulsory to do so. It’s in that murky darkness that much of New Zealand’s current pay gaps lurk.

There will be industries that will have to work harder than others. The media and finance industries, along with professional services, for example, have the largest industry gender pay gap at 15%.

More than 80 prominent business leaders have clubbed together to form the Champions of Change. They made publicly reporting gender pay gaps a condition of membership. Members include the chief executives and chairs of Air NZ, NZ Post, NZ Rugby and Ports of Auckland. They are clear that transparency is good business and good for business.

So, what is it going to take to get the predicted 20-40% drop in the gender pay gap that will likely result after compulsory reporting?

New Zealanders want it to happen. Businesses have the data. Less than half aren’t using the data. Prominent business leaders are already doing it. There is a member’s bill poised for a first reading.

What is it going to take?