2023 pay gaps data and Kia Toipoto Year Two Action Plan

Our 2023 pay gaps data and Kia Toipoto Year Two Action Plan are now available on the Portal. 

Our communities and our workforce are changing

By 2038, more than 50 percent of New Zealanders will be from non-European backgrounds and our communities will speak more than 200 languages. 

The Public Service Act 2020 requires Public Service leaders to work together to create a workforce that reflects the changes in the communities we serve. 

Kia Toipoto was launched in 2021 and describes a set of actions to help close gender, Māori, Pacific and ethnic pay gaps in the Public Service. 

Monitoring and reporting on our pay gap data annually and publishing our action plans are part of our commitment to Kia Toipoto and ongoing transparency around diversity and pay and how we can reduce bias and discrimination from each phase of our employee lifecycle. 

Our three-year Kia Toipoto programme 

Increasing diversity and inclusiveness in our workforce and culture at Fire and Emergency New Zealand will help us work more effectively with our communities to support their needs, mitigate risks and build resilience. 

Our Kia Toipoto programme of work (2022-2024) aims to remove bias and discrimination in our workplace and encourage diversity and inclusion across all phases of the employee and volunteer lifecycles. 

In Year One, we built our understanding of our data, policies and procedures and created awareness of this work with our leaders. 

In Year Two, our focus is on education and implementation and on the next page we set out our focus areas for our six programme workstreams. 

By December 2024, we plan to have made substantial progress towards: 

• ensuring bias does not influence starting salaries or pay for employees in the same or similar roles 
• developing plans to improve gender and ethnic representation in our workforce and leadership 
• considering equitable career pathways and opportunities to progress 
• protecting against bias and discrimination in HR and remuneration policies and practices 
• building our cultural competency 
• adopting flexible working opportunities, where possible. 

For more information, contact the project team at kiatoipoto@fireandemergency.nz