Equal Pay Amendment Bill
This bill changes the rules for 'pay equity claims' — these are legal requests made by workers (usually in female-dominated jobs like caregiving or cleaning) to get pay rises if their work has been historically underpaid because it was done mostly by women. The bill makes it harder to start a claim, requires more evidence upfront, cancels all current active claims (people can reapply under new rules), stops review clauses in past settlements, and means any pay rise from a successful claim is paid in stages over up to three years instead of all at once.
What this affects
Tap a topic to see how this bill touches it — with the parts of the text it’s based on.
The bill changes how workers in female-dominated jobs can claim equal pay, including making claims harder to start, phasing in any pay rises over up to three years, and cancelling all current active claims.
A pay equity claim may be raised if… there is evidence that the claim has merit
predominantly performed by female employees… means that the work… is performed by a workforce that is at least 70% female… for at least 10 consecutive years immediately before the date on which the claim was raised
allowing parties to agree to phase in remuneration over a maximum period of 3 years
removing the ability of the Authority to award back pay when it is fixing remuneration
All existing claims that have not been finally settled or determined before this Bill comes into force will be discontinued
Progress through Parliament
Have your say
Submissions open once a bill reaches the select committee stage. In the meantime, you can write to your local MP about it.
Write to your MPBill text sourced from legislation.govt.nz (Parliamentary Counsel Office). Arapono’s summary and breakdown are drafted with AI grounded in that official text and reviewed by an Arapono editor for accuracy and neutrality before publishing. Arapono is non-partisan and takes no position on this bill.