New Zealand’s gender pay gap has stalled at 5.3 percent, with new Stats NZ figures showing the dramatic improvement recorded a year ago has failed to translate into further progress — while the earnings divide facing wāhine Māori remains substantially greater.
Stats NZ says the gender pay gap was 5.3 percent in the June 2026 quarter, compared with 5.2 percent in June 2025. That follows a three-percentage-point fall the previous year, when the official measure dropped from 8.2 percent to its lowest level since the series began in 1998.
The latest numbers mean the headline gender gap remains close to its historic low, but they also expose a more complicated picture when ethnicity and different ways of measuring earnings are taken into account.
Women earning $34.95 an hour
Stats NZ calculates its official gender pay gap by comparing the median hourly earnings from wages and salaries of men and women.
In the June quarter, median hourly earnings were:
- $36.92 for men
- $34.95 for women
- $35.96 across all workers
Overall median hourly earnings increased 2.7 percent over the year. Men’s earnings increased 3.6 percent while women’s increased 3.4 percent.
On that measure, women earned about 94.7 cents for every dollar earned by men at the median.
A zero percent gender pay gap would mean there was no difference between men’s and women’s median hourly earnings.
A huge improvement — followed by a standstill
The longer-term direction has been positive.
In June 2024, the gender pay gap stood at 8.2 percent. By June 2025 it had fallen sharply to 5.2 percent, the lowest figure since the current series began.
But the latest result has edged back to 5.3 percent.
That 0.1 percentage-point movement is small enough that the broad story is essentially one of no significant further progress over the past year.
It means the big question is whether the 2025 improvement marked the beginning of another sustained decline or whether the country has hit another stubborn floor.
But the headline number doesn’t tell the whole story
The official 5.3 percent figure is based on median hourly earnings.
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions has highlighted a different measure using mean hourly earnings, which takes the average across all workers and can be more affected by the concentration of men and women at the highest and lowest ends of the earnings distribution.
Using Stats NZ data, the NZCTU calculates men’s mean hourly earnings at $44.92, compared with $40.61 for women.
On that basis, it puts the gender pay gap at 9.6 percent, up from 8.7 percent in 2025.
The two figures measure earnings differently, so they should not be treated as contradictory versions of the same calculation.
But together they demonstrate why a single national headline number cannot capture every dimension of pay inequality.
For wāhine Māori, the divide is far wider
For Radio Waatea audiences, one of the most important parts of the story sits beneath the national average.
NZCTU calculations derived from Stats NZ data put the median pay gap between Māori women and European New Zealand men at 15.8 percent.
Using mean earnings, that gap is 20 percent.
That is dramatically larger than the overall national gender pay gap of 5.3 percent.
Compared with Māori men, the NZCTU calculations put the median gap for Māori women at 3.5 percent, up from 2.1 percent in 2025. On the mean measure it was 6.4 percent, up from 5.2 percent.
Those numbers illustrate the intersection between gender and ethnicity in the labour market.
For wāhine Māori, the question is not simply whether women earn the same as men overall. It is also where Māori women are concentrated across industries and occupations, how those jobs are valued and how their earnings compare with those of other groups.
The Government says progress remains significant
Minister for Women Nicola Grigg has characterised the 5.3 percent result as remaining near a record low, while acknowledging that pay gaps affecting Māori and Pacific women remain too wide.
The Government has pointed to its gender pay gap calculator and employer toolkit as mechanisms businesses can use to identify disparities within their own workforces.
From that perspective, retaining most of last year’s substantial improvement is a positive result.
But unions see the numbers differently.
They argue that describing the headline figure as a success risks overlooking the continuing ethnic pay gaps and the lack of further improvement during the past year.
Pay equity becomes an Election 2026 issue
The numbers arrive with pay equity already politically charged.
The Government’s Equal Pay Amendment Act 2025 made substantial changes to the pay-equity system and discontinued existing claims, affecting large numbers of workers across female-dominated sectors.
The NZCTU has linked those changes directly to its criticism of the Government’s record on women’s earnings.
That ensures gender and ethnic pay disparities are likely to remain part of the argument heading towards the November election.
The debate matters particularly in sectors such as health, education, care and social services, where women make up substantial proportions of the workforce.
A pay gap is also a whānau issue
For wāhine Māori, lower earnings do not stop at the workplace door.
Income determines what reaches the household each week.
It affects the ability to pay rent or a mortgage, cover kai and power bills, contribute to KiwiSaver, build savings, secure lending and accumulate assets.
Over an entire working life, even relatively small differences in hourly earnings can compound into significant differences in wealth and retirement security.
That makes the gender pay gap more than a debate about fairness between individual employees.
It is also an economic issue for whānau and future generations.
5.3 percent is progress — not parity
New Zealand has unquestionably come a long way from the gender pay gaps recorded in previous decades.
The fall from 8.2 percent in 2024 to 5.2 percent in 2025 was substantial.
But 2026 has delivered a reminder that progress is not necessarily permanent or automatic.
The national median gap remains at 5.3 percent.
And once ethnicity is brought into the picture, the disparity facing wāhine Māori is considerably larger.
So the challenge is no longer simply getting the national number lower.
It is ensuring the gains reach everyone — because a historically low national pay gap means much less if wāhine Māori are still being left significantly further behind.
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Data Source: Stats NZ
