Gender pay gap is 9.5 percent

Stats NZ has released that the gender pay gap was steady at 9.5 percent in the June 2020 quarter and has remained relatively the same since 2017. The gender pay gap shows the difference in median hourly earnings for men and women. Hourly earnings from wages and salaries rose by a similar amount for both men and women. In the June 2020 quarter, median hourly wage and salary earnings rose $1.26 (4.7 percent) to $28.26 for men, and $1.07 (4.4 percent) to $25.57 for women.

Median weekly incomes were lower in the June 2020 quarter than they were a year ago, down 7.6 percent to $652 a week, in the wake of COVID-19.

Income statistics were collected during the first COVID-19 lockdown. During this extraordinary period a number of marginally attached workers left the labour force and would not be counted, while workers in more secure jobs (and those who could work from home) were counted. The Ministry for Women considers that this may have skewed results for this year’s gender pay gap and may reflect a 'point in time' rather than the whole year.