The Council of Trade Unions says Māori women are now effectively working for free for the rest of the year because of the gender pay gap.

Laures Park, the co-convenor of Te Rūnanga o Ngā Kaimahi Māori o Aotearoa, says wāhine Māori on average earn $24.26 compared with the $31.82 received by kiwi men, a gender imbalance of almost 24 percent.

She says Māori women’s work, both paid and unpaid, has upheld New Zealand’s economy and society forever, but has been undervalued and ignored by Pākehā leadership and measurement systems since colonisation.

She says that’s why the various private and public sector union rūnanga have joined the Mana Wahine claim to the Waitangi Tribunal.

Those profiting off the low pay Māori women receive for their labour are not just diminishing their mana in the workplace, they are also taking food off the table of Māori families, and resources out of New Zealand cities and towns.

Ms Park says employers, government and unions all must take responsibility and action to end the illegal gender pay injustice inflicted on wāhine Māori.

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