27% pay gap for Pasifika; 22% for women
Pasifika workers at Auckland Council are earning 27.6% less than the organisation’s average and the overall gender pay gap is 22.6%, according to a new calculation.
The council has published figures for the first time in what will be annual reporting in a strategy to close the gaps.
They show the council’s Ma¯ ori staff are paid 16.5% less than the average council worker.
‘‘Our data shows that the main cause of these pay gaps is the disproportionately high number of women and Ma¯ori and Pasifika employees in lower banded rolls,’’ the council said.
The issue was not that different people doing the same work were being paid differently, it said.
‘‘The key solution to closing the overall pay gap, is improving the representation of gender and ethnic groups at senior levels in the organisation.’’
The council said its gap was comparable to other large organisations.
The gender pay gap at Spark was 28%, while the Ma¯ori pay gap at Auckland Transport was 25.3% and at Auckland University of Technology, the Pasifika pay gap was 41.2, the council said.
Within Auckland Council, women make up 62% per cent of the workforce, but they make up only 46.4% of those in salary bands for managers and senior specialists, or higher.
Ma¯ ori are 6% of the council workforce and 5.6% are in the higher bands, while Pasifika make up 11% of the workforce, but only 4.7% of the higher salary bands.
‘‘History has got us to where we are now, and it is in our hands to change the course of the future for kaimahi and the council,’’ director of group services Richard Jarrett said.
A report in July for the Pacific Pay Gap Inquiry showed 73% of the pay gap for Pacific men and 61% of the pay gap for Pacific women could not be explained.
Auckland Council said it was focusing on sourcing diverse talent and ensuring interview panels were diverse, to build a workforce that reflected the communities it served.
In September, the council spent $4.6m lifting pay for 2600 staff who were in groups ‘‘negatively affected by gender and ethnicity pay gaps’’.