The gender pay gap closing, figures show - but will it ever completely close?

The gender pay gap is smaller for full-time workers compared to part-time workers.Photo / 123RF

New Zealand's gender pay gap is closing, according to figures from Statistics NZ.

The gender pay gap was sitting at 9.2 per cent in the June quarter of this year - the second-smallest gap recorded in around 20 years.

In 2012 the gender pay gap sat at 9.1 per cent - the lowest recorded, and last year sat at around 9.4 per cent.

Figures show this is the second year in a row that median hourly earnings for women, on both wages and salaries, increased faster than men, up 3.2 per cent compared to 2.9 per cent.

"Since 1998, the gender pay gap has been trending down. It's fallen more than 40 per cent," Sean Broughton, labour market manager at Statistics NZ, said.

"While the gap has closed over the past 20 years, on average, women are still paid less for an hour's work than men."

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The gender pay gap is smaller for people aged under 30. The largest gap is for workers aged between 50 and 54, sitting at a whopping difference of 18.4 per cent.

The gap in pay is smallest for those aged between 20 and 24 years old, recorded this year at 0.9 per cent, and for those aged between 25 and 29 the gap is 4.2 per cent.

For those aged between 15 and 19 the gap sits at 2.4 per cent.

The gender pay gap is smaller for full-time workers compared to part-time workers, recorded at 7.9 per cent for full-time workers, a decrease on last year, and 11.1 per cent for those working 20 hours or less per week.

Strategic Pay chief executive John McGill said the decrease in the gender pay gap in the June quarter was a "small but positive difference".

"It's a move in the right direction but I wouldn't get too excited about it," McGill said. "If we see that trend continue for another year or two I'll say 'yep, it's definitley moving down'."

McGill said he believed New Zealand was moving towards the end of the decrease and it would become hard for the gender gap to reduce further.

More women would need to be employed in largely male-dominated industries such as science and engineering fields for the gap to be completely abolished, he said.

It's a move in the right direction but I wouldn't get too excited about it.

He said women taking time off work in their 30s, often to start a family, played into the gender pay gap, one of many reasons women were on an uneven keel to their male counterparts.

"A lot of organisations are now retaining close contact with people who leave for a year and maintain their pay ... however if you choose to leave your employment for three to five years it's much more difficult."

McGill put the 18.4 per cent pay gap for people aged between 50 and 54 - where it is the biggest - down to career progression stalling when parents take extended leave from work.

"There's vertically no pay gap up until about age 30 ... there is no bias in the recruitment, they just pick the best people.

"In the 30s things start to change. If you take time out of the workforce, when you come back you may well be struggling to pick up your career when you left off."