Wāhine Māori effectively work one-and-a-half months of the year (48 business days) “for free” due to the disparity between men’s and women’s pay in Aotearoa, the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU) says.
Following Statistics NZ’s latest release of labour market data, NZCTU secretary Melissa Ansell-Bridges says there has been “disappointingly little progress” in closing the gender pay gap in the last year, despite continued low unemployment, wage growth and strong labour demand.
The overall gender pay gap has “persisted” across the past decade, she says.
Last year, the NZCTU calculated that on average women started working effectively for free on November 23, 2022. This year the data shows that this has now closed slightly to November 26.
“Ten years ago women started working for free on November 14. Despite all the huge strides we have made since then in terms of pay equality, we are still working 36 days a year for free. It underlines the need for more urgent effort from employers and the government on this issue,” Ansell-Bridges said Thursday.
When ethnicity is taken into consideration, “the picture is even starker”.
“The gap for Pasifika women means that in comparison to Pākehā men, they start working for free on October 7. Māori women start working for free on October 20. European women start working for free on November 21,” the NZCTU said.
“These dates show women of all ethnicities are still facing discrimination in employment.”
Last week, Labour said it would introduce mandatory gender pay gap reporting for large companies if returned to government after October’s election.
Ansell-Bridges says “all employers” should be ensuring equal pay for equal work.
“With the mean gender wage gap now at 9.8%, the case for change could not be clearer. All employers should make sure equal work is paid equally. We need greater pay transparency urgently. Last week’s announcement on pay reporting by the government is a great start, but we need to go further and faster,” she says.
Ansell-Bridges is also calling for mandatory reporting of ethnicity data. “These results show why the ethnic pay gap must also be reported on.
“We should also ban clauses in contracts preventing workers discussing their pay and require employers to include pay ranges in job adverts.”
Ansell-Bridges is an advocate of fair pay agreements as a means of providing transparency and fairer treatment for women.
“This data underlines why fair pay agreements are critical in New Zealand. They will provide transparency around basic pay for all workers and will ensure that women are not treated unfairly.
“Fair pay agreements will help reduce pay gaps and will highlight inequities in workplace pay. Not only are they good for women but they are also good for all New Zealand workers,” she says.