Human Rights Commission
Media release
8 November 2010
Embargoed against publication or broadcast until 5am, 8 November 2010

Public service not leading the way
Public service departments have fewer women at the top and many have significant gender pay gaps identified by department for the first time in the New Zealand Census of Women’s Participation 2010.

The biennial Census report, published today (8 November) by the Human Rights Commission, shows that women make up 17.6 per cent of chief executives, down from 23 per cent in 2008, and that only 10 of 34 public service departments have gender pay gaps less than the total labour force.

The Census report tracks progress, or the lack of it, for women across the corporate and private sectors at governance and management level.

A total of 24 public service departments have greater gender pay gaps than the total labour force (which is 13 per cent), calculated as a mean (average) using average hourly wage and salary earnings from the New Zealand Income Survey June 2010. The highest gender pay gap reported was 38.81 per cent.

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The only department with a negative pay gap – that is, women earn more on average than men – was at the Serious Fraud Office. At another department, a 23.3 per cent pay gap amounts to a dollar amount of $19,636.51 difference in annual pay.

EEO Commissioner Dr Judy McGregor says, “The report identifies who is doing well and who needs to improve and there is value in ‘knowing and showing’ how public service departments are responding, given that women make up 59 per cent of public servants. The public service has an opportunity to lead the way with pay and employment equity, but the results are very disappointing.”

Of the 34 public service departments in the census, only six (less than a fifth) employed a female chief executive as at June 2010. This is a decline from the last Census report in 2008, when 23 per cent of chief executives were women. The Department of Corrections was the only department with the number of women in management positions proportional to the staff.

Women from non-European ethnic groups are also under-represented. Of the women in senior management positions, 10.3 per cent are Māori, 1.5 per cent are Asian, 1.5 per cent Pacific peoples, 0.3 per cent MELAA (Middle Eastern, Latin American & African).

Download the 2010 NZ Census of Women’s Participation (PDF 1Mb).
[Scoop copy: 05Nov2010_092940_HRC_Womens_Census_2010_WEB.pdf]

ENDS

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