The Employee Remuneration Disclosure Act passed into law on 27 August 2025, introducing new legal protections for employees.
It is now unlawful for employers to take adverse action — such as dismissal, demotion, or disadvantage — against employees who:
- discuss or disclose their pay
- ask about another employee’s pay
- participate in a discussion with another employee about that employee’s pay
- are asked about their pay by another employee.
This change adds a new ground for raising a personal grievance to the Employment Relations Act, allowing employees to challenge adverse conduct that occurs for a remuneration disclosure reason.
The aim is to promote pay transparency, helping to identify and address pay discrimination.
Importantly:
- Employees are not required to disclose their pay but are protected if they choose to.
- Employers must prove that a remuneration disclosure was not the main reason for the adverse conduct.
- The law applies even if the pay discussion happened before the Act came into force, as long as the employer’s adverse conduct occurred after.
It doesn’t ban pay confidentiality clauses in employment agreements, but it limits how they can be enforced.
For more information on raising a personal grievance, visit:
Personal grievances