A new bill aimed at ensuring equal pay has been drawn from the members' ballot today.
The legislation would require employers to publish information about how much men and women were paid for the same job. Photo: 123RF
The legislation would require employers to publish information about how much men and women were paid for the same job.
One of the country's biggest unions is calling for cross-party support of Green MP Jan Logie's Equal Pay Amendment Bill.
Ms Logie said women earned 13 percent less per hour, on average, than men. She offered a concrete solution to fix that.
She said there were laws about equal pay, but this legislation provided transparency.
It required employers to keep their employees' pay and gender on record and pass it on to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
Other employees could then access that information, to compare their wage with that of others doing the same job.
Public Service Association general secretary Erin Polaczuk said the bill would be cheap to implement and provide transparent information for workers.
Other bills drawn today include one under Labour MP David Parker, which allowed the Ombudsman to recover costs, and a bill under his colleague, Ruth Dyson, which protected world heritage sites from mineral mining.
Anti-money laundering bill pass first reading
Meanwhile, legislation to bolster anti-money laundering rules has unanimously passed its first reading in Parliament.
The bill would extend laws to cover lawyers, accountants, real estate agents and sports betting.
The rules already apply to banks, casinos and financial service providers.
The Government has fast-tracked the legislation after the Panama Papers were released last year.
The global scandal revealed foreigners used trusts in New Zealand to hide their wealth.
The bill will go before a select committee for further scrutiny before returning for a second reading.