New Zealand’s Woe – Pay Gaps Have Far To Go - New Poll Shows NZers Want Action

New Zealanders have had enough of the unfairness of pay gaps and want something done about it.

Today Statistics New Zealand released figures that showed that the overall pay gap has stayed at 9.2% has remained the same for over ten years but there have been much wider gaps for Pasifika and Maori men and women and other ethnic groups.

MindTheGap campaigners say New Zealanders are demanding change.

In a poll released today by MindTheGap, three-quarters of respondents agreed that medium and large employers should be required by law to measure and publish their pay gaps to help close the gaps and ensure New Zealanders are fairly paid.

This follows a poll released earlier this year that showed more than half of respondents are concerned about New Zealand’s gender and ethnic pay gaps and want something done about it including businesses being required to share their pay gaps regularly and publicly.

“We’re asking the government to introduce standardised pay gap reporting for our larger businesses because we know from overseas experience that if employers start measuring their pay gaps they’ll start investigating what is causing them and the gaps will begin to move,” says MTG co-founder Dellwyn Stuart. "The figures released today only show part of the picture, we need transparency around ethnic pay gaps, we need a system where these can also be officially reported and measured each year."

“We're incredibly disappointed that overall the pay gap has not moved at all and we know the majority of New Zealanders are tired of this ongoing unfairness to their fellow kiwis and are demanding action.”

MTG has now collected over 7000 signatures to present to the Government asking for pay gap reporting to be mandatory. https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/close-the-gender-and-ethnic-pay-gaps-make-pay-gap-reporting-mandatory-for-businesses-in-new-zealand

The campaigners joined with over 40 unions and charities to send an open letter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Minister for Workplace Relations Michael Wood and Minister for Women Jan Tinetti asking to make pay gap reporting mandatory for businesses with more than 55 employees.

The letter said with the soaring cost of living taking its toll on families across Aotearoa, made worse as winter’s heating bills also begin to bite on household income now more than ever, we must act to close our gender and ethnic pay gaps.

MTG co-founder Jo Cribb says there was also overseas evidence that employees and consumers were more likely to choose to work with businesses that were addressing their pay gaps.

“It’s simply modern-day business,” says Dr Cribb.

So far 55 out of an estimated 5000 companies with more than 50 employees are reporting their gender pay gaps on The MindTheGap campaign’s Public Pay Gap Registry. Seven of those are also reporting their Māori pay gap and their Pasifika pay gap.

Poll results are based upon questions asked in a Talbot Mills Research nation-wide online survey. The sample was nationally representative of approximately 100 adults a day in New Zealand and conducted between 12th and 25th July 2022.

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