Why employers should act now
Mindthegap, an advocacy group that campaigns for the public reporting of gender and ethnicity pay gaps in New Zealand, have handed over an 8,559-signature petition calling on the government to bring gender and ethnicity pay gap reporting into legislation.
On October 20, it will be 50 years since the Equal Pay law was passed in New Zealand, making it illegal for men to be paid more than women for the same work, but Jo Cribb and Delwyn Stuart, co-founders of Mindthegap, say this is the time to honour those who fought for the change in law by committing to ensure New Zealanders are finally paid fairly in New Zealand.
“We know that if the Government made pay gap reporting mandatory, more businesses would become aware of their pay gaps and start to address them, eventually make New Zealand a fairer place to work,” Stuart says.
Read more: Is NZs private sector stifling the gender pay gap?
There was a lot of support for the petition on LinkedIn. Leadership mentor Rose-Marie Nathan posted, “Important mahi!! I wish my Te Whanganui-a-Tara wahine, and allies, well as you head out to represent” and third generation Māori educationist Kathie Irwin, posted “Ethnic and gender pay inequities continue to limit the economic resource base Māori women can access. For every $1.00 a Pākehā man earns a Māori woman earns $0.81c. In what universe is that ok? I'll be there today representing the wahine Māori I am descended from, standing up for the wahine Māori I am connected to and holding space for our mokopuna who will follow after me.”
Mindthegap co-founder, Stuart posted shortly before the petition was handed over, “When we started the #mindthegap campaign we knew allyship was key to success and our alliance has been strong and vocal. Today is Int. Day of the Girl and we chose this day to present our petition at Parliament with Aotearoa's girls in mind. Let's all be allies to those entering the workplace, ensuring pay discrimination is a thing of the past.”
One of New Zealand’s young HR senior leaders, Nick Hopkins, told HRD, he thinks it would be a really progressive step for New Zealand. “It would bring a lot of value to the sectors that are underrepresented by female workers especially sectors like the tech industry.”
Despite having an act that is specifically designed to protect women from being paid less than men in play for almost 50 years, it has done very little to address the issue. Our gender pay gap currently sits at 9.2% and while it’s decreasing, it is moving at snail’s pace.
Read more: New Zealand ‘a decade behind’ disclosing pay gap data
Compared to some countries around the world, New Zealand is relatively slow moving to legislate pay gap reporting. The UK passed pay gap legislation in 2017 and other European countries like Germany and France weren’t far behind them.
With no legislation in New Zealand, it is up to businesses to lead the way in addressing the issue.
A total of 75 companies have published links to their gender pay gap reporting, research, and action plans. Mindthegap provides a public registry of 200 of New Zealand’s biggest employers. Leaders of those organisations can voluntarily publish their gender pay gaps. If they chose not to, they receive a ‘No’ in the ‘We publish our gender pay gap’ column, which sits alongside the company’s name, and the names of the board chair and CEO.
Among the organisations that have committed to pay gap reporting are KPMG, Heartland Group, Auckland Transport, Meridian Energy, and Westpac Banking.
One of the early adopters of pay gap transparency was Westpac’s David McLean who released the company’s data when their gender pay gap was at 30%. Detractors said it would be bad for Westpac’s reputation but ultimately, people respected that they were willing to be honest and commit to fixing it.
In a video on Mindthegap’s website, Mclean said: “Gradually there are more and more companies measuring it and more starting to report it. We will find soon that if you’re a large employer, it’s safer to report what your number is, no matter how bad it is than to keep it quiet, because if you keep it quiet then others report, they question will naturally be what have you got to hide, why are you not even looking at this problem.”
Genesis Energy have made pay gap reporting part of their EVP. “For us it’s about understanding, are we fair? Are we being equitable?” said Genesis Energy Chief Executive Marc England.
Strategic Pay’s, Cathy Hendry said, “Employers need to consider the fairness aspect, why is there a gap to start with and does that stack up? But employers need to commit not just through raising pay but through cultural change within organisations.”
