Gender Pay Gap Calculator NZ 2026

This calculator works out your organisation's gender pay gap on both of the measures that get quoted, because they are different measures and they often disagree. You paste one salary per line into each box and it returns the mean gap, the median gap, the average and middle salary for each group, and what it would cost to close the mean gap. The mean compares average pay across everyone. The median compares the middle person in each group. A handful of very highly paid people will widen the mean while barely moving the median, so a large mean gap sitting alongside a small median gap is usually telling you something about who holds the senior roles rather than about unequal pay for the same work. That distinction matters legally as well as analytically. Paying people differently for the same or substantially similar work is unlawful under the Equal Pay Act. A pay gap is not that: it compares everyone in one group against everyone in another regardless of role, so an organisation where every single person is paid correctly can still report a large gap simply because its higher paid roles are not evenly held. There is no general requirement for private sector employers in New Zealand to publish a gap, unlike the United Kingdom, though public service agencies report through their own framework and a growing number of private employers publish voluntarily. Measuring it is worth doing either way.

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11.6%
mean gender pay gap, Group B against Group A
Median gap7.9%
Group A mean$74,667
Group B mean$66,000
Cost to close the mean gap$55,333

The mean gap is wider than the median gap, which usually means the highest paid roles are unevenly held rather than that people are paid differently for the same work. A pay gap is not the same as unequal pay, which is separately unlawful.

How it works

Each box is read as a list of salaries, one per line, and anything that is not a number is ignored so you can paste straight out of a spreadsheet. The mean of each group is the total divided by the count. The median is the middle value once the group is sorted, or the average of the two middle values where the count is even. Each gap is expressed as the difference as a percentage of Group A's figure, so a positive number means Group B is paid less. The cost to close the mean gap lifts every member of the lower paid group to the higher group's mean and totals the increases, which is a blunt figure but a useful order of magnitude. It does not include the employer KiwiSaver and ACC that would ride on those increases, and it is not a recommendation about how to close a gap, which is usually a structural question rather than an across the board adjustment.

Worked example

A team of twelve splits into two groups of six. Group A earns $95,000, $88,000, $72,000, $68,000, $64,000 and $61,000, averaging $74,667 with a median of $70,000. Group B earns $78,000, $71,000, $66,000, $63,000, $60,000 and $58,000, averaging $66,000 with a median of $64,500. The mean gap is $8,667, which is 11.6 percent, and the median gap is $5,500, which is 7.9 percent. Lifting Group B to Group A's mean would cost about $55,333 a year before on-costs, and applies to five of the six, because one already earns above that mean. The mean gap being wider than the median points at the top of the distribution: the two largest salaries in the team both sit in Group A.

Related calculators

Data sources: equal pay obligations are maintained against Employment New Zealand. This tool measures a gap; it is not legal advice on equal pay. Figures are checked twice monthly.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between the mean and median gender pay gap?

The mean compares average pay and the median compares the middle person in each group. They answer different questions and often disagree. A handful of very highly paid people at the top will widen the mean while leaving the median almost unchanged, so a large mean gap with a small median gap usually points to who holds the senior roles rather than to unequal pay for the same work.

Is a gender pay gap the same as unequal pay?

No, and the distinction matters. Paying people differently for the same or substantially similar work is unlawful under the Equal Pay Act. A pay gap is a different measure: it compares everyone in one group against everyone in another regardless of role, so it can be large in an organisation where every individual is paid correctly, simply because the higher paid roles are not evenly held.

Do New Zealand employers have to report a gender pay gap?

There is no general legal requirement for private sector employers in New Zealand to publish a gender pay gap, unlike the United Kingdom. Public service agencies report through their own framework, and a growing number of private employers publish voluntarily. Measuring it is worth doing regardless of whether you publish, because you cannot manage what you have not counted.