Time to speak up on the pay gap
OPINION: It’s often out of the mouths of babes that sensible comments come. ‘‘I have no words it’s so wrong,’’ came from a young girl who discovered females were getting paid less than boys for the same chores during an experiment for an ANZ Bank advertisement.
But years later, the pay gap hasn’t improved. Women, Māori and Pacific people have earned 9-10 per cent less than European men on average over the last decade. Although some say the gap could be up to 18.5 per cent.
But this week it looks like a campaign aimed at doing something tangible about addressing the pay gap seems to have made some inroads. Last week, Parliament’s education and workforce select committee recommended mandatory and comprehensive pay transparency. This was followed by a ministerial announcement that the Government is starting work to improve the level of pay transparency.
The fact that we Kiwis are reluctant to discuss what we earn could be part of the reason this issue has slid under the carpet for so long. Once in a team I was in, someone leaked everyone’s salaries. Turned out all but one of the men was earning more than the women. But until then no-one had sight of the unfairness.
While there are reasons such as career breaks and part-time work preferences for women, research shows a large percentage of the pay gaps are unexplained or the result of unconscious bias.
Men are also more likely to negotiate harder, while women are more accepting of what they’ve offered. That reluctance can lead to gaps such as the 27 per cent trough between a European male and a Pacific female’s pay.
It may seem a low priority to business and employees dealing with the immediate impacts of Covid, but the people most negatively impacted by the pandemic are also those at a disadvantage with pay gaps: women, Māori, and Pasifika.
What I like about the MindTheGap campaign is that it’s not just a whinge about unfairness – it’s offering three groups of people something tangible to do to make a difference. It’s encouraging employees to #JustAsk their bosses what their pay gaps are, it’s telling businesses to register the pay gaps and it’s asking the Government to make reporting of pay gaps mandatory.
There’s a reason for the request for a legislative change. It makes a difference. Experience in other countries shows the pay gap dropped by 20-40 per cent when transparency became law.
In New Zealand, when pay gap reporting became required in the public sector, gender pay gaps decreased from 12.2 per cent to
8.6 per cent. Many employers who don’t believe they have an issue have been gobsmacked that the gap was much higher than expected.
Think about how that pay gap impacts on colleagues working together. One would be able to take better holidays than the other, have a better car, a nicer house and their children might go to more expensive schools, all at the same time working side-byside.
But earning less throughout a lifetime also has a long-term impact. If you earn less, you have less to contribute to Kiwisaver each week, therefore less to live on in retirement.
Making the pay gap public gives us something to talk about. Try explaining to your children why Pākehā men get paid more than Māori men or Pacific women – there’s no logic.
In the ANZ ad, one of the children says, ‘‘Maybe if the men noticed they were being paid more than women they’d speak up and do something about it.’’
I think it’s time we all spoke up.