The Gender Pay Gap, Region by Region, Over 25 Years
In the 2024 tax year the median woman earning wages in New Zealand received $50,350 and the median man $64,010: a gap of 21.3 per cent in annual earnings. In 2000, the first year of the series, the same measure stood at 41.1 per cent. This page holds that measure for every region, every year between, from Stats NZ tax records covering essentially everyone who earned. The regional series does not appear to be published anywhere else.
Read this before quoting any number on this page. This is the gap in median annual earnings of everyone with any wage income. It is a wider gap than the official Stats NZ figure, which compares hourly earnings, because annual earnings fold in hours and weeks worked, and part-time work is not evenly shared between men and women. Neither figure is more true: the hourly gap measures what an hour is paid, this one measures what a year actually delivers. Quoting this page's figure as "the gender pay gap" without the word annual will get you corrected; with it, the number is unimpeachable, because it is arithmetic on tax records.
Every region, ranked
Narrowest gap first, with each region's starting point a quarter of a century ago alongside. A regional gap reflects the region's industry mix as much as anything: a region whose biggest employers are health and education measures narrower than one built on forestry and heavy transport, whoever is paying fairly.
| Region | Women, median | Men, median | Gap, 2024 | Gap, 2000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marlborough | $42,930 | $50,990 | 15.8% | 48.4% |
| Wellington | $59,630 | $70,890 | 15.9% | 32.7% |
| Hawke's Bay | $46,210 | $55,670 | 17.0% | 47.6% |
| Auckland | $54,090 | $65,870 | 17.9% | 32.9% |
| Gisborne | $41,510 | $52,850 | 21.5% | 43.0% |
| Bay of Plenty | $44,380 | $57,310 | 22.6% | 49.9% |
| Northland | $44,250 | $57,390 | 22.9% | 46.1% |
| Otago | $46,500 | $60,710 | 23.4% | 44.9% |
| Manawatu-Wanganui | $47,210 | $62,280 | 24.2% | 45.2% |
| Tasman | $40,090 | $52,900 | 24.2% | 50.0% |
| Nelson | $45,190 | $59,840 | 24.5% | 45.4% |
| Waikato | $48,300 | $64,890 | 25.6% | 47.0% |
| Canterbury | $49,040 | $66,120 | 25.8% | 44.9% |
| Taranaki | $46,060 | $64,160 | 28.2% | 50.9% |
| Southland | $45,530 | $64,590 | 29.5% | 51.0% |
| West Coast | $43,110 | $64,170 | 32.8% | 56.3% |
Each region links to its full salary page, where the same split runs by age and by year.
The national gap across the whole series
$0$42.7
These figures are not from a sample, so they carry no sampling error and the bars have no error range drawn on them.
The narrowing is real and slow: about 19.8 percentage points across the whole series. At that pace the annual-earnings gap does not reach zero in any year a person now working will work. Whether that is an argument about pay rates, about who carries part-time years, or about both at once is exactly the question the hourly and annual measures divide between them.
What sits underneath a regional gap
Three things move these numbers, and pay discrimination is only one of them. Industry mix: regions differ in what their big employers are, and sectors pay differently. Hours: the annual measure counts part-time years at what they paid, and part-time work is unevenly shared. Age structure: the gap widens through the child-raising decades, so a region's age profile shifts its measured gap. The salary pages hold the by-age split nationally, where the widening through the thirties and forties is visible directly.
What this data cannot do is attribute its gap between those causes: tax records show what was paid, not why. Anyone using this page in an argument should carry that sentence with them, in fairness to whichever side of the argument they are on.
Related pages
- Average salary in New Zealand: the same records, all splits.
- Am I paid enough?: your pay against your band and region.
- Earnings across a career: where in the curve the gap opens.
- Pay Rise Calculator: what closing a personal gap is worth after tax.