Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces a 20 per cent pay cut for ministers, herself, and public sector chief executives.

Hamilton City Council's chief executive Richard Briggs has done an about-turn and pledged to cut his salary by 20 per cent for the next six months.

Briggs gets paid $469,040 per year, a salary that puts him slightly behind New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, but ahead of Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters.

Ardern recently announced that she, other Government ministers and top public sector bosses would cut their pay packets to acknowledge Kiwis doing it tough in the Covid-19 crisis.

Briggs said on Wednesday that he would not take a 20 per cent cut but was ring fencing part of his recent $16,000 pay rise - $2436 over a two month period - to a staff hardship fund.

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CHRISTEL YARDLEY/STUFF Hamilton City Council Chief Executive, Richard Briggs initially declined to cut his salary by 20 per cent, but has now changed his mind.

That amount represented .5 per cent of his income for the year, or 7 per cent cut across six months.

By contrast, Waikato District Council chief executive, Gavin Ion, promptly pledged to cut his $348,124 salary by 20 per cent for six months, which meant he was giving up $34,812.40.

But on Friday Briggs pivoted, releasing a statement saying he would now be giving up 20 per cent of his salary over six months as well.

This expands his donation from $2436 to $46,904.

Briggs denied to Stuff his change of heart had anything to do with Ion's move, or any feedback prompting him to donate more.

He said he had learnt more information about alert level 3 restrictions and lasting Covid-19 impacts in the past few days.

"I really admire Gavin Ion's contribution and that's good leadership from him, but I made my decision completely independent of that.

ROSA WOODS/STUFF Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pledged on Wednesday to slash he own salary by 20 per cent in light of the Covid-19 pandemic on New Zealander's jobs and incomes.

"I also read the five scenarios put out by Treasury in terms of their predictions for the New Zealand economy and all five of them have a year-long impact of Covid-19, so because of that I made a decision I needed to step up a bit more and I've done that."

He did not think he should have followed suit in a 20 per cent pay cut any earlier, saying he was one of the first to donate.

"The first thing is I made a contribution of 7 per cent of my pay (increase) last week long before anyone stepped up with any contribution within local government.

"For me it's about making informed decisions and I believe I've done that."

Briggs said his decision was a "completely personal" one.

"I'm actually more doing this for those that are in hardship, so publicising it isn't really my ambition."

The staff hardship fund makes donations from Briggs, and others, available to Hamilton City Council staff experiencing hardship.

Briggs said staff were contending with a drop to one income in the household, or dealing with higher bills due to working from home.

He wanted to donate to this fund because it would target the money to those who really need it, he said.

The pay cut will take place immediately and will be reassessed after six months, he said.

Hamilton mayor Paula Southgate did not want to comment on Briggs' pay cut, saying it was his own, personal decision.