Cafe collecting loose change to tighten up gender pay gap
Men visiting Pomeroy’s Nelson stores this week are being asked to shell out extra for their caffeine hit.
An extra 50 cents has been added to male customers’ coffees, as the business does its bit for the nationwide Equal Pay Week of Action.
Pomeroy’s Coffee and Tea owner Hayden Thompson is hoping it will spark conversations about New Zealand’s gender pay gap and said while it had been a bit of risky campaign, on the whole it had been well received.
‘‘The feedback from people who have come into the cafe has been 99 per cent positive,’’ Thompson said. ‘‘There have been a few people who have said ‘I’m not paying extra’...’’
Thompson said he wasn’t worried about the odd negative comment, as it was still getting people talking about the underlying issue.
‘‘We had a situation before where a guy said; ‘oh nah, not really’ [to the charge] but there was a lady next to him and they had [a conversation], not a heated conversation but just a really good conversation.’’
He said while some people had been surprised about 50 cent levy for men, more had been surprised to learn what had prompted it.
It’s a 12 per cent hike on a coffee or tea, which reflects the 12 per cent difference between the pay of men and women.
Thompson said many customers he’d spoken to had assumed there was no longer a pay gap in New Zealand.
‘‘They’ve said; ‘I thought we really good nominations ... it’s making people think about women in the workforce sectors who deserve a pay top-up,’’ Jamieson said.
Thompson said they didn’t know how much money they’d end up with, but if there was more than expected they might split it between more nominees.
One cafe customer, who didn’t want to be named, said it was an ‘‘interesting’’ campaign but he wasn’t sure it would solve the problem.
Another regular at Pomeroy’s, Tony Woodall, said the issue was more about poor pay across the board, rather than just for women.
But customer John Vaughan said he was completely on board with the campaign.
‘‘In this day and age, we’re in a position where women should be paid the same as men.’’