Missed opportunity for Govt to support women

Women have been denied the opportunity to know when they are being underpaid, by a Government that is not prioritising women’s issues, the Green Party said today.

“When the Government voted against my bill this evening, they denied women the right to know if they are being underpaid in the workplace,” Green Party women’s spokesperson Jan Logie said.

“My member’s bill would have had employers adding gender to their payroll reporting requirements, and allowed employees access to that aggregated information to see if they are being paid fairly.

“With the gender pay gap stagnating between 12 and 14% percent in New Zealand, we know that we need to do more to see women paid fairly.

“The Government tonight voted against pay transparency measures that would help fix the gender pay gap and would see women paid more.
“When the Government put out their draft Equal Pay Bill, it was a golden opportunity to put in measures like my Bill to help women get paid more. Instead, they have completely redrafted the bill and made it harder for women to get equal pay.
“We can take action to get women paid more, but every step of the way the Government has prioritised reducing fiscal liability over the rights of New Zealand women to a better deal,” Ms Logie said.

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