New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced she will take a 20 per cent pay cut in a symbolic act of solidarity with people struggling financially during the coronavirus pandemic, AFP reported.

Ardern said her personal salary, those of her fellow ministers and of top public servants would be slashed by a fifth for six months.

“While it in itself won't shift the government's overall fiscal position, it is about leadership,” she told reporters.

“This was always just going to be an acknowledgement of the hit that many New Zealanders will be taking at the moment," she said.