2 November 2017

Faster action required on pay equality, says Minister Genter

A new international report reinforces that faster action is needed to address the gender pay gap and bring benefits to women, both in New Zealand and globally, says Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter.

“New Zealand can and should be a world leader in ending women being paid less.

“Our goal is to work to further close the gender pay gap for women and focus on pay equality. New Zealand organisations need to be more proactive about closing their gender pay gap.

The latest World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index shows New Zealand has held its position of 9th out of 144 countries.

“However, we have not improved over the last year and the news globally is not positive. The World Economic Forum states that the parity gap across health, education, politics and the workplace on a global scale is widening. Politicians, businesses, community leaders, and families have to consciously take action to end this unfairness. I will,” Ms Genter said

“This report also shows that 56 percent of all work New Zealand women do is unpaid (compared to 29 percent of men’s) and mean monthly earnings of women in New Zealand is 70 percent that of men”

“There is much more we can do to improve the lives and incomes for New Zealand women.

“It’s 2017, I think most people in New Zealand would say that people should be paid fairly for their work and they should not be paid less because they are a woman.

We should be ambitious and be a global leader in our work to achieve gender equality,” said Ms Genter.

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