The gender pay gap in New Zealand has narrowed to a record low, new data shows.

The pay gap between men and women was 5.2% in the June 2025 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said.

It is a drop from 8.2% in the corresponding period last year.

Dellwyn Stuart, co-founder of campaign group Mind the Gap, said the figure showed a “trend in the right direction”, but more movement was needed.

Stuart told the Herald the narrowing gap follows “a few good interventions” in the past five years.

“I think it’s on the back of the very successful Mind the Gap campaign, and the work that the public service did under the last Government around mandating pay gap measurement and reporting.

“And then for this Government, it followed up by creating a gender pay gap toolkit that’s freely available. So there has been quite a few good interventions in the last five years and I think we’re seeing that impact now.

“But we need more information and there is more to go. Any pay gap based on gender or ethnicity is unacceptable.”

The gender pay gap is the difference between the average pay of men versus the average pay of women.

Stuart said Stats NZ’s new figure is a broad look at the overall gap but Pasifika and Māori women had a much larger pay difference.

Mind the Gap co-founder Dellwyn Stuart says the narrower gap follows "a few good interventions" in the past five years. Photo / Michael Bradley

“I’d be interested to see if their pay gaps have also shrunk in a way that is significant,” she said.

Professor Gail Pacheco, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner at the Human Rights Commission, called the data “hugely encouraging”.

“Put simply, that means the median woman now earns about 95c for every dollar earned by the median man,” Pacheco said.

She agreed with Stuart on the ethnic pay gaps and also noted Stats NZ’s figure did not cover the self-employed or unemployed.

Stats NZ’s labour market spokeswoman Abby Johnston said the data showed the lowest pay gap since records began in 1998.

“Annually, the gender pay gap declined by three percentage points, the first statistically significant annual decline noted since 2017,” she said.

Stats NZ said the gap had narrowed because of women receiving larger increases in median hourly earnings from wages and salaries than men.

The new figure comes on the same day five labour unions announced plans for a rally outside the High Court at Wellington on Friday over Government legislation cancelling their members’ pay equity claims.

Pay equity, as opposed to equal pay, is the same remuneration for different work that has the same or similar level of skill or responsibility, the Ministry of Women says.

Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers business, breaking news and local stories from Tāmaki Makaurau. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.