It’s seems further effort is going to be needed if New Zealand wants to close its ethnic and gender pay gaps after the latest research revealed a disappointing level of disparity across the public sector.
Data released late last week by the State Services Commission shows there has been no improvement in Pacific, Māori or Asian pay gaps – to make things worse, the gap for Pacific people is actually growing larger.
“Ethnic pay gaps within core public services have remained unacceptably high for the past ten years,” said Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Dr Jackie Blue. “All levers to address the gender pay gap, including closing the ethnic pay gap, must be used,” she added.
Blue’s comments come after the Human Rights Commission said a concerted effort to eliminate ethnic pay gaps will be necessary if New Zealand is to achieve its goal of closing the gender pay gap in the core public services over the next four years.
“We know the critical times when the gap begins at the start of their career, when women may accept the lower part of the salary band and then explodes when they take career breaks to have a family,” said Blue. “Experience shows us they never catch it up.”
While the SSC has been publishing gender pay gap by department since 2015 – and CEOs are required to regularly report what they are doing to reduce the gap – Blue said these efforts need to be redoubled.
“The gap grows significantly when women take time out to have a family,” she stressed. “There are structural changes that can be made such as ensuring that they do not miss out on their regular wage increases and are supported back into their work when they return.”
Blue also said flexible work options should no longer be considered ‘nice to have’ but an accepted and legitimate part of the modern workplace.
“It’s also important that effort is put towards achieving paid parental leave for men in their own right so that sharing child care between parents becomes the norm,” she said.
“Importantly, budget needs to be allocated to achieve the goal of achieving a zero gender pay gay in the core public services,” she continued. “Reducing the gender pay gap is complex but there are some obvious places to start and that needs to begin in earnest.”
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