22 June 2011

Action on all fronts needed to lift women’s low pay

Barbara Wyeth, national President of The Service and Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota, has welcomed Green Party MP Catherine Delahunty’s pay equity private members’ bill as a small but valuable step towards achieving a living wage for undervalued women workers.

“This bill is part of the jigsaw of actions urgently needed to address the crisis of low pay our members face,” said Ms Wyeth, a cook at Auckland’s North Shore Hospital.

“Our union represents many thousands of women in jobs traditionally dominated by underpaid and undervalued women, such as cooking, cleaning and caregiving,” said Ms Wyeth. “The pay gap between men and women is our members’ daily reality. There is an invisible army of women out there, many of whom are the main income earners or only income earners in their families, struggling to feed those families on as little as $13 an hour.”

Ms Wyeth said the bill was an important step in making the pay gap visible. But she said more urgent action was needed to lift pay rates for low-paid women workers.

“To achieve a living wage for underpaid and undervalued women we must lift the minimum wage to $15 immediately and strengthen our employment law to make it easier for unions to negotiate fair pay settlements.”

Barbara Wyeth said this was the top issue in the upcoming general elections.

“Our members totally reject Nationals’ agenda of weakening employment law and will be voting for stronger work rights law. Closing the pay gap between undervalued women’s work is an important part of this.”

ENDS

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