Glossary

• Gender pay gap: the difference in the earnings between men, women, and gender diverse employees, regardless of job type.
• Organisation-wide gender pay gap: the difference in earnings between men, women, and gender diverse employees across an organisation. 
• Like for like gender pay gap: the difference in earnings between men, women, and gender diverse people who are performing the same or substantially the same job.
• Level-by-level gender pay gap: the difference in earnings by gender when comparing employees within each job level, grade, rank, or salary band, but not within the same position.
• Occupational segregation: a pattern where men and women are more commonly employed in a particular occupation or sector.
• Vertical segregation: a pattern where men are more prevalent in managerial positions.
• Unconscious bias: implicit attitudes or stereotypes that affect decisions, such as hiring and promotions.
• Gender balance: the distribution of men and women within different levels, departments, or functions within an organisation.

• Remuneration: reward for employment in the form of pay, salary, or wages, including allowances, benefits (e.g., company car, carpark, gym membership), bonuses, cash incentives, and monetary value of non-cash incentives.
• Base pay: the fixed rate of ordinary pay for a job paid weekly, fortnightly or monthly, including any salary sacrifice. Base pay excludes all additional payments such as benefit or cash payments, KiwiSaver employer contribution, allowances, insurances, club fees, superannuation, variable bonus payments, commission, overtime etc.
• Fixed pay: all cash components that are paid regularly and are not ‘at risk’. This includes KiwiSaver or superannuation, fixed allowances such as wellbeing, clothing, car, and accommodation if paid as cash.
• Variable pay: all cash components of pay that are not guaranteed. This included overtime, bonuses, performance-based pay, higher duties allowance, on-call pay, profit sharing, or equity pay. This is made up of the amount the employee was paid, not the amount they were eligible for.
• Total pay: the sum of base pay, fixed pay, and variable pay. This is the total cash amount an employee receives for carrying out their job.
• Pay period: when and how often an employee is paid, for example, weekly, fortnightly, or monthly. This varies between workplaces.

• Equal pay: the same pay for the same work, regardless of gender.
• Pay equity: the same pay for different work which has the same or similar level of skill, responsibility, and effort.

Find out more.

• Mean: the sum (total) divided by how many numbers there are in a list. This is also called the average.
• Mean pay gap: the average difference in pay between genders. It is calculated by adding all employees’ rates of pay together and dividing by the total number of employees.
• Median: the middle number, found by ordering all data points and picking out the one in the middle (or if there are two middle numbers, adding these together and dividing the answer by two).
• Median pay gap: the mid-value at which half the employees’ earnings will be above this point and half will be below.

The gender pay gap toolkit uses the median.

• Employee: a person employed to do any work for wages or a salary under an employment agreement. They can be employed full-time or part-time, permanent, casual, or fixed-term. This includes Chief Executive’s, but excludes contractors.
• Contractor: a person who is self-employed that earns income by invoicing for their services. They do not have an employment agreement.
• Casual: an employee that works when it suits them and the employer. Casual employees have most of the same rights and responsibilities as permanent employees, but the way annual holidays and leave applies is different.
• Permanent: an employee that has an ongoing employment at the workplace and have the full set of employment rights and responsibilities. Permanent employees can be part-time or full-time.
• Fixed-term: an employee with an employment agreement that will end on a specified date or when a particular event occurs.
• Full-time and part-time: Employment legislation does not define what full-time or part-time work is. Usually, 35 to 40 hours a week is considered full-time. Less than 35 hours would be considered part-time.
• Full-time equivalent wage/pay: the wages for a given position if the employee was working full-time.
• Equity partner: a business owner or shareholder who has a financial interest in the company’s success. They share in the profits and losses of the business based on their percentage of ownership.
• Tenure: the length of time an employee has been at an organisation or the length of time an employee has held a particular job.