Feedback wanted: New Zealand looking at legislation to prevent pay secrecy

The New Zealand Parliament is gathering public submissions for a proposed piece of legislation seeking to make pay secrecy clauses "ineffective."

Parliament's Education and Workforce Committee is calling for submissions on the Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill until January 23, 2025.

The bill seeks to amend the Employment Relations Act 2000 to protect employees who discuss or disclose their salaries by making pay secrecy clauses invalid.

The proposal comes as current laws in New Zealand permit employers to include terms prohibiting their employees from discussing or disclosing their remuneration to third parties, including other employees of the same employer.

If an employee is discovered to be non-compliant, this may be considered a breach of good faith and lead to a disciplinary matter, subjecting the individual to "detriment or adverse treatment" by their employer.

Proposed legislation for pay transparency

But the proposed legislation seeks "to make such clauses ineffective in relation to any adverse treatment by an employer (if the contractual term is broken)."

"This bill would seek to ensure that employees can discuss and disclose their own pay rate to others without detrimental repercussions to their employment," the bill's explanatory note stated.

"It is hoped that this would lead to greater transparency in pay and allow any pay discrimination to be more easily identified and remedied."

The bill passed this month the First Reading in Parliament, which was lauded by Labour MP Camilla Belich, who introduced the proposal.

"Very pleased that my member's bill preventing pay secrecy and allowing all workers to talk about their own pay passed its first reading tonight with support from the Labour Party, the Green Party, Te Pati Māori and the National Party," Belich said on a Facebook post.

"There is more work to do for all of us to address discrimination in pay, but this Bill is a good first step."