Government Shamefully Allows Gender Pay Gap to Widen

The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa says the Government is shamefully ignoring opportunities to address pay inequity as it sits by and lets the gender pay gap widen.

Latest figures show that under National the gender pay gap has opened to 12.81%.

NZEI National Secretary Paul Goulter says “John Key shamefully canned the Pay and Employment Equity Unit last year and shut down all further pay equity investigations. He now has to take responsibility for this widening gap and fix it”.

The growing gap is particularly disheartening as the Government has clear evidence of pay inequity for thousands of education workers, yet refuses to take action.

A pay investigation involving around 800 Ministry of Education support workers who work with special needs children, found they are significantly underpaid when compared to male workers in other sectors who have similar skills levels and responsibilities.

A separate report of the Pay Equity Review of the Compulsory Schooling Sector found that across all occupational groups in schools, there were areas where women were not being treated fairly or were being discriminated against in terms of pay, career advancement and value of their work.

“What that means is thousands of women working in education, many of whom are low paid, are being denied the opportunity to have their proven issues around pay and employment inequity addressed,” says Paul Goulter.

“The fact that the Government seems happy to sit by and let the pay gap widen when it could easily act on the recommendations in these reports, is nothing short of immoral.”

NZEI will continue working with the other unions to demand a response from the Government and ensure that all women workers are treated fairly and equally.

ENDS

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