Midwives and rest home workers may be about to make history with separate cases before the courts seeking gender pay equity. Both industries employ women predominantly and for that reason, it is argued, their pay is too low. The rest home workers' case is well advanced. Their union won a ruling from the Court of Appeal last year that extends the application of the Equal Pay Act 1972 to allow their wages to be set by comparison with different work performed predominantly by men.
While that ruling was greeted as a breakthrough, it was only a statement of principle. It has left a great deal to be decided when the Service and Food Workers' Union asks the Employment Court to put the pay equity principle into effect. While the Appeal Court ruled that comparisons with male occupations could be made, it declined to identify possible "comparator" occupations for rest home care or offer guidance on how comparisons should be made. It did not even indicate how systematic undervaluation of a female occupation might be proven in a particular case.
The hard work remains, as well illustrated in our report of the midwives' claim on Tuesday. The College of Midwives argues its members earn substantially less than male-dominated professions. A self-employed midwife earns $40,000-$60,000 after paying her own expenses. GPs, who used to routinely deliver babies, earn $70,000-$175,000. But are those occupations really comparable? Some instead wish to compare midwives' work with paramedics ($58,000-$72,000) or others that can be called out any hour. Firefighters earn much the same pay as midwives at present, as do police in their first few years. However, job comparisons are always invidious. How can anyone say midwifery is more or less arduous, socially valuable, personally demanding, worrying or risky than attending accidents, dealing with injury and death, fighting fires or crime?
When it comes to the point, pay equity claims in the Employment Court will probably be based less on comparisons than on intrinsic worth. When it is considered how much rest home workers have to do for aged people in care, few would begrudge them a substantial improvement on the pay they receive. That includes those who pay them. The head of TerraNova Homes and Care, the company in the test case, writing in the Herald last Thursday, said the fees rest homes can charge are capped by regulation at "marginally uneconomic levels". If carers are to be better paid, said Terry Bell, rest home fees and/or public funding will need to rise.
Independent midwives may, sadly, face a harder fight for better pay. They have chosen to be self-employed rather than work on a state payroll and they are funded for costs like any other business under contract. That will be why their claim is based on the Human Rights Act rather than the Equal Pay Act but the argument is the same: gender discrimination. They believe their work is undervalued simply because women do it. It may not be that simple, but whatever the reason, they - like many other women in a variety of occupations - are worth more.
