The announcement comes after a bruising fortnight for the Government, which has defended its decision to use parliamentary urgency to retrospectively overhaul the existing pay equity regime, saving “billions” according to ministers.

Just how much money was saved – and will therefore no longer be heading into the pay packets of hundreds of thousands of workers – has remained classified, with Luxon and other ministers refusing to declassify the figure.

This is despite the Government continuing to reveal other spending in pre-Budget announcements.

Labour said that women working in the funded sector were unlikely to get pay equity. The funded sector refers to services funded by the Government but delivered by someone else, often a private provider or a charity. It includes hospice works and Plunket and refers.

Labour had agreed to underwrite these pay equity settlements when it was in Government, accepting the funded sector could not pay for them itself.

Labour pointed to comments made by Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden in Parliament, in which she said last year’s pay equity reset undertaken by Finance Minister Nicola Willis would mean “suggested that the funded sector would not be funded by the Government for pay equity”.

The Cabinet paper for that reset suggested a clampdown on funding – however it actually suggested finding additional funding to “increase baselines in support of pay equity cost pressures on the funded sector”.