Can you talk about your pay at work in New Zealand? Pay secrecy explained

What a pay secrecy clause says

A pay secrecy or pay confidentiality clause is a term in an employment agreement or policy that asks you to keep your salary confidential, sometimes with a warning that sharing it is a disciplinary matter. Some employment agreements include one, although there is no official count of how many.

Employers have used them for several reasons: to avoid comparisons between staff, to keep room to negotiate with each new hire, and to protect commercial information. The effect is that the people with the least information about pay are the employees themselves.

The law since 27 August 2025

The Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Act 2025 changed the position. It is now unlawful for an employer to take adverse action against an employee who:

• discusses or discloses their own pay;
• asks about another employee's pay;
• takes part in a discussion with another employee about that employee's pay; or
• is asked about their pay by another employee.

Adverse action includes dismissal or any other disadvantage. It is a new ground for a personal grievance, and the Employment Relations Act now presumes that a disclosure was a substantial reason for the employer's action unless the employer proves otherwise.

Two limits matter. You are not required to disclose your pay: the protection is for choosing to. And the law does not ban confidentiality clauses outright; Employment New Zealand describes it as limiting how they can be enforced. If your agreement still has a pay secrecy clause, it stays in the document, but it cannot be used to discipline or disadvantage you for any of the protected acts above. A clause about keeping other confidential business information private is a separate matter and still applies, and the protection covers your own pay and your questions, not pay details you see through your job, for example in payroll. A personal grievance generally has to be raised within 90 days. Our guide to employment rights in New Zealand covers how to raise one.

Practical ways to learn what colleagues earn

A legal right to talk about pay does not make the conversation easy. A few approaches help:

• Go first. Sharing your own figure makes it easier for a colleague to share theirs.
• Ask about ranges, not exact figures. "Are you somewhere between $80,000 and $90,000?" is easier to answer.
• Talk to people who have left. Former colleagues are often more open about what they earned and what they earn now.
• Ask HR about bands. Where an employer has pay bands, asking which band your role sits in is a reasonable question.

Respect a no. The law protects people who choose to share, and a colleague who would rather not is entitled to that choice. Keep a note of what you learn and when, so the figures you rely on later are accurate.

Using it in a pay case without naming names

What you learn is most useful as evidence of a pattern, not as a comparison with a named person. "I understand people in similar roles here are paid between $85,000 and $95,000, and I'm at $78,000" makes the point without putting a colleague in an awkward position.

Combine it with your own results and the market rate for the role, and ask directly what it would take to move within the range. Our guide to asking for a pay rise covers how to structure the conversation.

The demo opens with no account and shows the salary story kept on each job: what the ad said, what was asked, what was offered and what was accepted, which is the same kind of record that makes a pay case specific.

Aggregate salary data as the alternative

If talking to colleagues is not practical, published data gives you a benchmark without anyone disclosing anything. Recruiters' salary guides, ads for similar roles that show pay, and official figures all help. For context across the whole workforce, Inland Revenue's median wage and salary income was $61,958 for the year ended 31 March 2026, although that includes part-time and part-year earners, so it is a guide to the middle of all earners rather than to any particular role.

Our article on checking whether you are underpaid sets out which sources are most reliable for a specific role.

Bring your own record to the conversation