New data shows that from today, Māori and Pacific women effectively work for free for the rest of 2024 compared to the average Pākehā man’s salary.
The Pay Gap Insights Hub data saw there was still a gender and race gap in the Aotearoa workforce.
Currently, it is for every one dollar a pākehā man makes:
- A Māori woman makes $0.81
- A Pasifika woman makes $0.79
- A Pākehā woman makes $0.92
- An Asain woman makes $0.82
- A MELAA woman makes $0.88
- While any woman from another ethnicity makes $0.84
The figures also reveal the gap is slowly closing, with roughly four out of five organisations which report on their gender pay gap saying they’ve seen a reduction in the last year.
Nonetheless, calls remain for other businesses to follow the strides that have already been made in closing the gender pay gap.
“We know New Zealand employers don’t set out to have pay gaps, but almost all do find gaps. It’s the act of measuring and analysis that reveals the drivers and solutions within each business,” said Mind the Gap cofounder, Dellwyn Stuart.
“Ensuring women are paid equitably and afforded opportunities to advance to higher paying roles (addressing pay gaps) will reduce our in-work poverty rates.“
The data was collected from more than 115 Aotearoa businesses that reported their gaps.
26% reported on the pay disparities with their Māori employees and 22% showed their Pacific peoples pay gap.
According to Stuart, businesses voluntarily shared their data, which in turn helps inform best practices in Aotearoa’s work environment.
“While legislation is required to create an even playing field for reporting and impact, there is still opportunity for positive change with the current voluntary approach. We have around 3000 businesses in NZ of more than 100 employees and only a small fraction of these have embraced reporting to date. That means there’s lots of room to increase participation,” she said.
On Sunday, Women’s Minister Nicola Grigg said there was still work to do.
“While we have made significant progress, there is still work to do and we must continue to keep the pressure on this issue. My ambitions for the future are that there will be no pay gap in the public and private sectors, and that is what we should all work towards.
“It requires continuous efforts across the public and private sectors to ensure that we can continue to see results. This can be achieved by supporting women into leadership, lifting incomes, and providing businesses with the tools to calculate, understand and address their gender pay gaps.
“Women deserve to be paid fairly and to be supported to succeed, and we are doing everything we can to ensure this happens.”
In June the government announced a pay gap calculation tool, with Grigg saying it will be available in the coming weeks.