Pay Equity Discussion Paper
The Ministry of Women’s Affairs has issued a 34-page report on pay equity: “Next Steps Towards Pay Equity: A Discussion Document”. Women’s paid and unpaid work is important to families and to the economy. Women are now 47% of all employees. On average, however, they earn 84.3% of the average hourly earnings of men. The pay gaps for Maori and Pacific women compared with all men are larger still. Why is this? Are women’s job skills and responsibilities being undervalued?
This discussion paper provides information on the gender pay gap and the current range of government policies to address it. There is a policy gap, however. Women and men typically do quite different jobs. Those differences are estimated to contribute 20-40% of the gender pay gap. International conventions ratified by NZ recommend that this be addressed through the principle of “equal pay for work of equal value”. NZ has no current policy on this, just equal pay laws if women and men are doing exactly the same job. What do you think government should do?
This discussion paper is a first step in raising this issue for public discussion and possible future policy consideration. Your submission can contribute to this process.
Submissions close 30 November 2002, and should be sent by post or email to: “Towards Pay Equity”, Ministry of Women’s Affairs, PO Box 10 049, Wellington, email mwa@mwa.govt.nz, fax (04) 472 0961. The paper can be downloaded from www.mwa.govt.nz/new.html and the Ministry intends to publish a summary of all submissions on its website at www.mwa.govt.nz. A more detailed, fully-referenced, background paper, “Next Steps Towards Pay Equity: A Background Paper on Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value”, is to be made available shortly. |
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