The Green Party has promised to restore New Zealand’s pay equity law and set aside about $1.1 billion a year to settle the claim of roughly 65,000 care and support workers, a pledge RNZ calculates at just under $4.5 billion over four years.
Co-leader Marama Davidson announced the policy on Thursday 1 October. The Greens say they would repeal the coalition’s 2025 changes to the Equal Pay Act, return the law to where it stood before, and recognise the undervaluation the care workers had already established before their claim was stopped.
“In government, the Greens will restore pay equity law and fund the settlement these workers need and deserve,” Davidson said in the party’s announcement.
She described the workforce as mostly women on low pay who help people shower, dress, eat and take their medication in rest homes, hospitals and private homes. “These workers had already proven their work was undervalued when the Government changed the rules and told them to start again,” she said.
The party says it would pass legislation to settle the claim if that was needed, although Davidson said the final figure would still be negotiated. “The final settlement will be agreed through bargaining with the workers and their unions.”
The $1.1 billion a year covers only the care and support workers. RNZ reported the Greens have not yet put a price on restoring the whole pay equity scheme, which would reopen the door to claims from nurses, teachers and other female-dominated workforces.
The policy is a direct challenge to one of the most contested decisions of this Parliament. In May 2025 the Government rushed changes to the Equal Pay Act through under urgency, halting 33 claims that were already under way and making it harder to show that work had been undervalued. The changes raised the bar for what counts as a female-dominated workforce from 60 per cent women to 70 per cent, interest.co.nz noted.
The money mattered to the Government’s books. Finance Minister Nicola Willis said at the time that the change would save about $12.8 billion over four years, and those savings were built into Budget 2025. Davidson’s release accuses the Government of choosing “to try and balance its budget by stopping these claims and continuing the underpayment of these workers.”
The Greens’ announcement came three days after Labour leader Chris Hipkins made his own promise at a packed public meeting in Spreydon, Christchurch, on Monday night. “I want to give you a reassurance that within the first 100 days we are back in government we will reverse that change,” Hipkins told the crowd, 1News reported. He said care and support workers would be first in the queue for a settlement.
Hipkins also described the 2025 law change as “probably the most reprehensible thing I have seen in my time as a member of Parliament”. Labour’s finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds has since gone further, promising the care workers’ deal would be done by her first Budget if Labour leads the next government.
RNZ reported that Labour has not yet released a full pay equity policy, so the Greens’ $1.1 billion a year is now the clearest public figure on what settling the care workers’ claim might cost, and a yardstick for whatever Labour eventually puts forward.
The Public Service Association, the union representing many of the workers, welcomed the pledge. National secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said in a PSA statement that “This announcement sets the benchmark on what is needed for pay equity to become a reality for care and support workers in New Zealand”.
According to the union, the Greens’ 30 per cent pay equity uplift would be worth about $350 a week to a full-time care and support worker. Because the average worker in the sector works 62 per cent of full-time hours, the PSA puts the typical gain at about $220 a week. The union also claims, based on its own analysis using a Treasury model, that reinstating all the cancelled pay equity settlements would add $13.5 billion to the economy over four years. That figure is the PSA’s own and has not been independently tested.
Care worker and PSA member Sarah Strid said the claim was ready to go. “I’ve done care work for years and I know what this work is worth. And we proved it.”
Behind the politics sits a practical problem that no party can avoid. New Zealand’s population is ageing quickly, and the number of people needing help to stay in their own homes or in residential care will keep rising through the 2030s. Care and support work is already hard to staff, and the PSA says many workers have slipped back to the minimum wage because their earlier settlement was never updated.
Under the 2025 law, new pay equity claims can still be lodged, but they must clear the higher bar, and the 33 halted claims would have to start again. The opposition parties are betting that enough voters, particularly women in low-paid caring jobs and the families who rely on them, think that is unfair.
For voters, the choice is becoming clearer. Labour and the Greens would both reverse the 2025 changes and put care workers first, with the Greens having now named a number. National, ACT and New Zealand First passed the changes and have given no sign they would undo them. If you are still weighing up where the parties stand on this and other issues, you can find out which party best matches your views with our voting tool.
Should care and support workers have their pay equity claim settled, and is $1.1 billion a year the right price? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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