Jo Cribb notes the public service gender pay gap has widened if you look at median figures. Photo / Dean Purcell.
Jo Cribb notes the public service gender pay gap has widened if you look at median figures. Photo / Dean Purcell.
Opinion
COMMENT:
If you believe the press release earlier this month, the public service gender pay gap has decreased for the third year in the row. If you look into the fine print, you will see this isn't quite so.
If the public service gender pay gap is measured by averagingall men's and all women's salaries, the gap between the averages has dropped. More women in senior leadership positions boosted the average, potentially hiding the reality of most women public servants.
If you measure the gender pay gap by finding the median, the public service gender pay gap has got bigger.
The public service's gender pay gap (at 10.7 per cent) is bigger than one for the entire workforce (9.2 per cent).
Confused? Many of us are. I can hear the lids of the lap tops of my favourite commentators flipping open now to complain that no woman is ever paid less than a man in New Zealand, but if they are it is because they are not as experienced, educated or just don't want the responsibility of a well-paid job.
I guess they haven't read years of research evidence that, when experience and education and other variables are controlled for, consistently show women are paid less.
Discrimination occurs in our workforces and, in our public service.
The Aussie gender pay gap is at a record low. Yes, it's still higher than ours, but is dropping quickly. The sunlight effect seems to be working.
The good news is that a bit of sunlight on the issue is working. Releasing the data by department has created informal league tables. No one wants to be at the wrong end of the table so departments have been busy. Some more than others: Oranga Tamariki eliminating its gap while Crown Law sits on an embarrassing 31 per cent. But we can celebrate that they're all working on it.
Creating transparency is one of the most effective ways of reducing the gender pay gap.
In my experience working with New Zealand organisations, many do not know if they have a gender pay gap. You can't address a problem you don't know you have. These organisations often believe they're fair to all employees so assume there is no issue. A quick run through their payroll data usually changes that view.
We like to think we are leading the way in the gender equality stakes. But countries who we compare ourselves with, like Australia and the United Kingdom, have long known that pay transparency works to reduces gaps. Both legislated to make gender pay gap reporting mandatory. The Aussies did so in 2012 for all non-public organisations with over 100 employees. They made it easy for businesses to report and set up an agency – the Workplace Gender Equality Agency – to help organisations get on top of their gender issues.
Jo Cribb. Photo / Supplied
The Aussie gender pay gap is at a record low. Yes, it's still higher than ours, but is dropping quickly. The sunlight effect seems to be working.
I suppose you could argue that our gender pay gap is also at a record low and over time will correct itself. But I would argue that it's been pretty stubborn, hovering around 10 per cent for a decade, and needs a serious shove if it is to change and its only one part of the pay gap picture.
The ethnic pay gap section of the Public Service HR report is sobering. While the average salary of a European male public servant is $88,600; and a European woman $76,900; a Māori man earns $73,600; a Pacific man $65,100 and a Pacific woman public servant $60,800. Last year, Pacific women public servants received one of the lowest levels of pay increases compared with other ethnicities.
These statistics will be true for many industries and organisations in New Zealand.
