NEW ZEALAND
New figures have revealed that two-thirds of New Zealand’s Public Service Agencies either have no, or very small, gender pay gaps in starting salaries or have concrete plans to ensure that gender isn’t a factor when it comes to pay.
Minister of State Services, Chris Hipkins announced the latest statistics, saying the Government was making good progress towards eliminating the gender pay gap altogether.
“Starting salaries are one of the key focus areas of the Government’s action plan to fix women’s pay across Government Agencies,” Mr Hipkins said.
“To support the work Public Service leaders are doing in this space, the State Services Commission has recently released guidelines to Agencies, produced by the Gender Pay Gap and Pay Equity Taskforce, in partnership with the Public Service Association.”
Minister for Women, Julie Anne Genter (pictured) said starting salaries could have a major impact on an organisation’s overall gender pay gap, and it was encouraging to see this progress.
“I want to acknowledge the commitment of chief executives and their human resources teams for leading this complex work as part of our Gender Pay Gap Action Plan,” Ms Genter said.
“This work is a first step on a journey, and Agencies are at different stages.”
She said Agencies had different workforces and different issues driving their pay gaps, and some of these issues were more complex than others and might take longer to resolve.
“We’re making good progress but it’s going to take time,” Ms Genter said.
Wellington, 10 May 2019
