The newly appointed Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter says that in order to close the gender pay gap the government needs to put policies in place otherwise change won't happen.
Speaking to Q+A this morning, Ms Genter said she hopes to implement a policy to close the gender pay gap in the next four years.
She says government can achieve this by holing chief executives of government agencies to account.
"The goal for equality will be added into their KPI's. We know there is a whole lot of processes, steps and systems that can be taken in order to close the gender pay gap and we just need push those leavers a bit harder."
By involving women in these conversations at a higher level, this can be achieved, she says.
"I think we have to recognise that if you don't have clear policies like that you will not get clear representation."
Ms Genter says women of colour are the ones who are most discriminated against when it comes to pay equity.
As part of her new role as Minister for Women she says the government aims to close the gap within four years' time. (Source: Other)
"It worse for Maori and Pacific women it's 20 per cent for them and for women on average it's 10 per cent and I think that we made progress on it and for the last decade it's stagnated and I think that with the new government we can close that last bit of the gap but it takes some willingness to accept the evidence to decide what is going to be an effective policy."
The pay gap isn't due to women being less capable or not holding leadership roles, but it's due to unconscious bias, Ms Genter says.
She says 80 per cent of the gender pay gap is unexplained.
Drawing from her own experience when she worked as a transport consultant and was the only woman in her office, Ms Genter says men with less skill were being paid far more than their female colleagues.
"We can do something about it and we will".
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