New Zealand's Equal Pay Amendment Act 2025 — Rollback of Pay-Equity Claims (Cautionary Case)

The Equal Pay Amendment Act 2025 amended New Zealand's pay-equity framework and was passed through all stages under urgency on 6 May 2025 with the votes of the National, ACT and New Zealand First parties, without select-committee consideration.
Claimants must now show that the work is performed by a workforce that is at least 70% female and has been for ten consecutive years (previously 60% at any time), and must have evidence and reasonable grounds to believe the work is historically and currently undervalued.
All 33 pending claims, covering thousands of workers, were discontinued and must be refiled under the new test, and review clauses in existing settlements became unenforceable. Thirteen claims had previously been settled, including one for about 38,000 nurses.
The change prompted nationwide protests and a civil-society 'People's Select Committee' inquiry. No independent outcome evaluation exists yet; the case is included as a documented cautionary example.

Read the full analysis: https://www.dentons.co.nz/en/insights/alerts/2025/may/14/pay-equity-reform