Utopia, you are standing in it!

The gender wage gap has dropped by two-thirds in the last 30 years. It has halved since the first pay equity claim was filed 14 years ago. The gender wage gap is now barely 5.5% in June 2026 according to the recently released Statistics New Zealand data. It is a stretch to file pay equity claims asking for 30% more when the gender wage gap struggles to stay above 5%.

The gender wage gap data released by Statistics New Zealand recently is the raw data. There are no adjustments to that pay gap for differences in educational backgrounds, continuity of employment and dedication to demanding careers, unsocial hours, risk of injury, and the greater desire of women for work-life balance and jobs with more working from home options.

It is not mischievous to say that the gender wage gap may round down to zero once these factors are considered.

From time-to-time, detailed datasets become available on male and female workers that show that the gender wage gap goes down or close to zero. There are even detailed datasets where hiring and job assignments are made without any management intervention or possible bias.

There is a large gender wage gap driven by work-life balance under a bus and train drivers’ collective agreement in Massachusetts. The work-force was one-third female with hiring via a lottery among applicants with a clean record. Shifts are chosen by drivers strictly according to their seniority at each depot.

There was still a 11% gender wage gap because women drivers elected to work less overtime, they avoided overtime shifts on short notice, and they worked fewer shifts at nights and weekends. This gender wage gap among bus and train drivers cannot be the fault of their sexist employer because work was allocated by an exceptionally detailed union contract.

A 7% gender wage gap emerged even when a computer algorithm is allocating the work first come, first served.

A study of Uber drivers found a gender pay gap of zero once account is taken for male Uber drivers driving more at nights, weekends and in the more dodgy neighbourhoods with drinking establishments. Male Uber drivers also worked more hours per year which meant they had much more work experience than female Uber drivers. These additional hours meant men became more skilled in deciding when and where to best cruise for the best paying jobs. The fact that men drive faster explained the last two percentage points of the gender pay gap at Uber. Speed meant men were available for the next Uber job quicker.

The gender wage gap is just into the double digits for the top 10% of female earners in New Zealand in 2025 (see OECD graphic). This is because their chosen careers are often not family friendly. But even at the top end of town the gender pay gap has halved in the last 20 years.

OECD data explorer

Women’s willingness to trade work-life balance for lower wages and fewer promotions is a big driver of the gender wage gap and the channelling of women into family friendly occupations. The wages of men and women at all levels are similar in the years leading up to motherhood then everything changes.

Top American labour economist Claudia Goldin found that some careers severely penalise any time off such as for motherhood or working less than punishingly long or rigid hours. Goldin refers to these jobs as greedy jobs. Women’s preference for family friendly occupations that can pay less and a tendency to avoid greedy jobs will mean that the gender wage gap may always be with us at least at the big end of town.