DB Breweries has signed an open letter addressed to the New Zealand Government in an effort to introduce mandatory pay gap reporting legislation.

Signed with twelve other New Zealand businesses, the letter is part of a campaign led by MindTheGap, a public pay gap registry that launched in March earlier this year.

“We are proud to support MindTheGap in the campaign to get more businesses to publicly report their pay gaps,” DB Breweries’ people director Rebecca Mead said.

“We think the gender pay conversation is important and that awareness and transparency are vital components required to achieve pay equity across Aotearoa.”

The letter also said that 75 per cent of New Zealanders want to see “medium and large employers required to measure and publish their pay gaps”, according to polling by MindTheGap.

As outlined in its sustainability report published last month, DB Breweries has maintained a 0 per cent gender pay gap as measured by the New Zealand government standard since 2018.

“We measure and publish our gender pay gap annually and this year became Gender Tick Accredited, which means we have reviewed our policies and solidified our commitments to gender inclusiveness,” Mead said.

“This accreditation is important to us to ensure that as an organisation we hold ourselves accountable and consistently champion equity for our people.”

The business also aims to improve upon its gender pay gap according to Henekin’s standard.

“While we have had a 0 per cent gender pay gap aligning to the NZ government standard since 2018, we also assess our gender pay gap according to Heineken’s more robust methodology which currently shows we have a 2 per cent gap,” Mead explained.

“We have an action plan in place to close that gap by 2025 which includes our ongoing focus on increasing our female representation in our organisation in general, and in our people leader and senior leader roles in particular, as well as ensuring equal opportunity for promotions, performance and talent management, and salary review processes.”

In Australia, the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 requires non-public sector businesses with 100 or more employees to disclose gender pay gaps to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

Kirin-owned Lion, which also signed the open letter in New Zealand, announced in its 2021 sustainability report that its gender pay gap for like-for-like roles was less than 1 per cent. It also set new gender balance targets of having a minimum of 40 per cent men and women in each team by 2030.