MindTheGap Campaign Applauds Findings Of Select Committee

The founders of a campaign to address pay gaps between employees are applauding the findings of a Select Committee.

Parliament’s Education and Workforce select committee has been conducting an investigation into ‘pay transparency’ with a goal to reduce unexplained pay gaps between men and women, different ethnic groups, and for the disabled

MindTheGap Campaign co-founders Dellwyn Stuart Jo Cribb are delighted that the Committee has recommended the Government develop pay transparency measures.

The MindTheGap campaign believes that to close our pay gaps, mandatory pay gap reporting is required. It recently established a Public Pay Gap Registry for employers to report their pay gaps and is pushing for the Government to work with business to create standardised measurement and coverage of all employers.

‘We are delighted to see how far the Select Committee recommendations have gone to support a mandatory and comprehensive pay transparency regime rather than voluntary compliance,’ says Dellwyn Stuart.

“Öur gender pay gap has not moved in years and international evidence shows when businesses know and report their pay gaps, they are more likely to work towards closing them.”

In New Zealand the national pay gap is 9.1% but Strategic Pay says that gap is likely to be as much as 18 percent in Corporates. This means for every dollar a Pakeha man earns, a Pakeha woman earns $0.89 and a Maori man earns $0.86, and Maori woman $0.81.

Ms Stuart also applauded the Select Committees recommended principles which called for a comprehensive approach to addressing both ethnic and gender pay gaps while ensuring there was no reduction in wages for any staff.

The campaign’s Public Pay Gap Registry shows 50 of our large employers are reporting their gender pay gaps. Seven of those are also reporting their Māori pay gap, and seven are reporting their Pasifika pay gap.

The voluntary registry, a world first, shows each company’s name, Board Chair, CEO, whether they are reporting their pay gaps as well as a link to committed organisations’ reports.

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