Pitched as fair pay for "the people who care for our families", the Green Party would undo the coalition's 2025 changes to pay equity law and fund a settlement for the care and support workers whose claim was stopped.

📋 Greens: Pay equity for care workers, October 2026 →

What it does

• Restores pay equity law to where it stood before the coalition's 2025 changes, which stopped 33 claims that were under way. RNZ reported the party was open to improving the scheme.
• Settles the claim of about 65,000 care and support workers first, recognising the undervaluation they had already established, and would pass legislation to settle it if needed.
• Sets aside about $1.1 billion a year, just under $4.5 billion over four years, based on Parliamentary Library costings with 3% yearly wage growth. The party calls this an indicative provision, not a cap, with the final figure set through bargaining with workers and their unions.
• Does not include a cost for restoring the wider pay equity scheme, the party told RNZ. The Spinoff reported Treasury has put that bill at $11 billion over four years.

The debate

• Co-leader Marama Davidson said most of these workers are low-paid women who had already proven their work was undervalued before the rules changed.
• When the law changed, Finance Minister Nicola Willis put the savings at about $12.8 billion over four years, and Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden said the changes made the law simpler and more robust.
• Labour has also promised to reverse the changes within its first 100 days, but Newsroom reported the Greens' funding relies on a wealth tax that Labour leader Chris Hipkins has ruled out.