The Government’s decision to rewrite pay equity laws to save its Budget means 65,000 mainly female care and support workers will continue to be underpaid by $148.50 a week, new figures calculated and released today by the PSA show.

Care and support workers have waited more than three years for the Government to fund their pay equity claim, meaning they have missed out on as of today about $19,480 in pay.

"Despite the Government’s spin, women workers are losing, and will continue to lose, money because of this sexist attack on lower paid, mainly female workers to plug a Budget hole caused by reckless tax cuts and tax breaks for wealthy landlords," said Assistant Secretary with the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi, Melissa Woolley.

"Women are subsiding the tax cuts and the failure of the Government to effectively manage its Budget," said Woolley, a former care and support worker who has played a significant role in pay equity negotiations.

Yesterday’s announcement will set back the care and support workers’ claim, one of the 33 pay equity claims covering at least 150,000 workers across education, health, funded, tertiary, local government and public service sectors.

The care and support workers’ claim was a result of the 2017 pay equity legislation that increased the pay of care and support workers to 21 per cent above the minimum wage. This increase was in recognition that care and support workers have been historically underpaid because the sector is female dominated.

The 2017 legislation had a five-year time limit, which expired in June 2022. Since then, as a result of successive governments’ refusal to fund a new pay equity settlement, about 65,000 mainly female care and support workers are losing $148.50 a week they are entitled to. As of today, that amounts to $19,480 each.

With no new pay equity settlement being agreed, care and support workers have seen their hard-won pay equity settlement eroded by inflation and the failure to maintain relativity above the minimum wage.

"These workers are now largely back on the minimum wage, and many have had no wage increase for two years, making a mockery of the pay equity settlement," Woolley said.

"The Minister has told the House that the new 10-year review period in the legislation means that the care and support workers will not be able to have their claim revisited until 2027.

"Pushing the review out to 2027 when it should have been completed in 2022 is blatantly unfair. It makes a mockery of Government claims the 10-year review period will be adequate to ensure ongoing equity for workers.

"The care and support claim has jumped through every test, survived every change up until now. This is another heartbreaking decision to not give these workers the pay equity they deserve and need.

"Since 2022, successive governments have been ripping off women workers, effectively using their commitment to the people they support, hard work and lost wages to subsidise the provision of care and support for the vulnerable in our communities.

"Now by further delaying settlements and making them much harder to achieve, this Government is further exploiting these largely female workers to plug the holes in their Budget. It’s blatant sexism effectively imposing a penalty tax on women workers."

Notes:

PSA analysis of lost wages is based on the 21 per cent margin above the minimum wage that care and support workers received in the 2017 settlement. The settlement rates, or the minimum wage rate, whichever was higher has been compared with what the rate would have been if the 21 per cent margin had been maintained. The comparison is based on a 30-hour work week.

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