Media Release BPW NZ
For immediate release

The story of Janet and John

Equal Pay Day is about equal pay for work of equal value says the New Zealand Federation of Business and Professional Women (BPW NZ) and the red bags are a symbol of women being in the red in regards to pay.

“If we want to empower women, one of the things we have to do is to pay them the same amount as their male counterparts” says Carolyn Savage, President BPW NZ.

Whether pay is equal or not is measured by the gender pay gap, and this has stayed at around 12% for the past 12 years.

For every hour worked John earns $3.70 more than Janet – that equates to over $200 a week – a grocery bill for some households. Janet and John do the same work and have the same skill set.

Last year, there were two members bills floated which would go a long way to reducing the gender pay gap as well as a report by Goldman Sachs indicating that reducing the gender pay gap would increase NZ's GDP by 10%

“We want to see some action on the gender pay gap by the government.

“We want women to feel valued, the productivity of NZ to increase and women to be empowered in the workplace.

“It would be nice to think that by the end of the year 2012 that Janet's pay wasn't so far in the red”

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