Suffrage Day highlights persistent gender pay gap

There is much to celebrate on Suffrage Day, but the pay gap between men and women reminds us that there is a long way to go before New Zealand women enjoy true equality, the Green Party said today.

"Today we celebrate Kate Sheppard and the suffrage movement whose hard work and passion secured women the right to vote 118 years ago," Green Party Women's Affairs Spokesperson Catherine Delahunty said.

"But the right to vote is just one part of ensuring women and men have equal rights.

"Major inequalities remain between men and women in terms of pay and representation. Women still earn on average 12 percent less per hour than men.

"Last week, a new report by the Ministry of Education showed that just four years after graduating, women earn on average $4380 less per year than men with the same tertiary qualifications.

"It is bad for the whole country to allow such a marked gender pay gap to persist. Last month a report by Goldman Sachs documented the economic benefits to the whole country of closing the gap.

"The Goldman Sachs report recommended a proactive approach by the Government to close these disparities, but the National-led Government's policies have been very poor in this area.

"One easy way to correct this is for the Government to support and adopt my Equal Pay Amendment Bill to make information about gender pay rates available.

"While it has been illegal to pay men and women differently for doing the same job since 1972, it has been very difficult to test whether employers are complying with the law, because there is no way to find out what men and women are paid for the same work.

"My bill would correct this by requiring employers to provide information about gender pay in their workplace available to workers on request. Aggregated gender pay data would also be published by the Department of Labour about the whole country."

Ms Delahunty said she was pleased to see that the Labour Party had today indicated support for a law change to make gender pay information more available, and hinted at more generous paid parental leave provisions.

"The Green Party is committed to a more equal New Zealand that lives up to the promise shown when we became the first country in the world to recognise women's right to vote.

"With the political will, we can lead the world again in terms of gender equality," Mrs Delahunty said.