However, the industrial relations environment for businesses had become more difficult.
The Government's pay rise for care and support workers had raised concerns for businesses, she said.
Some feared there might soon be a lot of pay equity claims demanding significant wage increases.
The care and support workers' $2 billion settlement was large but it should not be taken as an indication of how pay equity claims would play out in the future.
The carers' settlement took place in the public sector, not the private sector, Mrs Nicholls said.
Later this year, the Pay Equity Act would be passed, with new rules on how pay equity claims would be managed.
A new Pay Equity Act became necessary because of a recent Appeal Court ruling the Equal Pay Act covered not just equal pay - such as male and female construction workers being paid the same - but also pay equity.
Men and women had to be paid the same for doing different jobs of equal value.
The court's ruling meant a new Act was needed to rule on which jobs were equal to which, she said.
``The Act will let an employee raise a pay equity claim with their employer and begin bargaining for an increase in pay based on a comparison with another person's job.''
The comparison would be need to determine which jobs were of equal value.
Close comparisons would have a better chance of finding ``equal value'', especially close comparisons within the same industry.
As an example, Mrs Nicholls said an office manger in a panel-beating firm would find a closer comparison with an office manager in a tyre services firm than with an office manager in a medical or legal practice.
Small businesses were not at great risk of being caught up in a big sector-wide pay settlement process like the aged carers' case.
Pay equity claims in the private sector were more likely to be taken by an individual within an individual company, not by all workers within an industry-wide claim.
Industry-wide claims were far more likely to happen in the public sector - nurses, mental heath workers and teacher aides.
However, the new Pay Equity Act could affect businesses in two ways.
It could make wage bargaining more complicated. The requirement to bargain over job comparisons meant more regulation and compliance for businesses, she said.
``And it could mean wage increases in related sectors as pay increases gained in the public sector have a knock-on effect on wages in the private sector.''
For businesses, those were not insignificant outcomes and were a direct result of the Appeal Court's judgement and the resultant new Act.
As a result of the court decision and legislation, the industrial relations environment for business had become more difficult, Mrs Nicholls said.
