Gender Pay Principles offer blueprint for pay equity

2 July 2018: The Gender Pay Principles, announced today by the Minister for Women and the Minister for State Services, will provide a blueprint for the public service to reach its 2021 deadline of closing its gender pay gap, said the Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) Commissioner, Dr Jackie Blue.

“These set of guiding principles are very much welcomed and should provide a way forward for equal pay in the state sector,” Dr Blue said.

The State Services Commission has been transparent. It has made available gender pay gap information in the public service since 2000.

“Progress on closing the gap has been patchy across departments and slow. These principles provide the platform, structure and impetus to achieve workplace gender pay equality. I am looking forward to their immediate implementation in the public sector and later rolled out to the state sector,” Dr Blue said.

The ethnic pay gap in the public sector is also far too high for Pasifika people at almost 22%. This is much higher than the median gender pay gap of 9.7% at June 2017.

“Over time I see these principles being applied in the private sector and would encourage all employers to look at adopting them,” Dr Blue said.

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