PSA calls for commitment on pay equity on International Women’s Day

The Public Service Association (PSA) is calling for a commitment from political parties to address the gender pay gap.

The Pay Equity Challenge Coalition has invited 100 New Zealand women leaders to sign a pledge to strive for pay equity and to challenge the Government to 'urgently reassess its strategy on pay and employment equity with a plan to significantly close the pay gap in the next three years'.

The Pay Equity Challenge Coalition launches the pay equity pledge today at a gathering of working women on Parliament grounds at lunchtime.

The gathering will also pay tribute to women in Canterbury who have lost their homes, loved ones, and jobs in the devastating earthquake.

“I’ll be attending today’s gathering and calling for a strong commitment from political parties to help win the gender pay gap,” says PSA National Secretary Brenda Pilott.

“The PSA has a long history of advancing pay equity. It lobbied tirelessly for the Government Service Equal Pay Act that was passed in 1960.
“But fifty years after the passing of that law a huge gender pay gap remains in the workplace.

“Before its demise in 2009 the Pay and Employment Equity Unit reported that women and men received unequal starting salaries for the same job.

“Last year, a study of graduate income data by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs found that a year after entering employment the average income gap between men and women with a bachelor’s qualification or above was around 6 percent. After five years the average income gap had increased to 17 percent.

“It is totally unacceptable that women are being paid less for doing the same job as men, especially so in a country that was at the forefront of the women’s suffrage movement,” says Brenda Pilott.

“The Equal Pay Act of 1972 was meant to eradicate such gender pay discrimination but it hasn’t. Clearly transparency about pay in workplaces is needed for the gender pay gap to be effectively challenged.

“Now is the time for that challenge to take place. It is long overdue and today, the hundredth anniversary of International Women’s Day, is a fitting day to call on the Government to close the gender pay gap and value the work that women do as much it values that of men,” says Brenda Pilott.

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