Rev Alofa Lale said her church community in Dunedin struggled to afford basic needs and said people need higher wages to survive.
"There is a big Pacific pay gap that needs to be bridged and bring wages up to parity with non-Pacific."
A Pacific Pay Gap Inquiry found that in 2021, for every dollar earned by a Pākehā man, Pacific men were paid 81 cents and Pacific women 75 cents, making them the lowest on the pay scale.
