Men in industry and trades still earn 20 per cent more than women

Monday, 21 January 2019

Women continue to be under-represented and underpaid in New Zealand's core industrial sectors.

Female tradies are consistently paid 20 per cent less than their male counterparts, a new report has found.

Released today, the report by specialist recruitment agency OneStaff,revealed that women continued to be significantly under-represented and paid less across New Zealand's core industrial sectors.

The survey of more than 10,000 Kiwis in blue collar jobs found wage differences between $1 and $5 an hour.

Beth Pike, a former plumber who now runs a west Auckland-based plumbing business, said she was surprised the difference in wages persisted.

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Swanson plumber and mum-of-two Beth Pike said she was surprised by the persisting gender wage gap in the trades.

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'I had my son two-anda-a-half years ago, so I stopped working on the tools then. Now we have our own company,' she said.

'But I know in our case, if we were taking on a female plumber, we would definitely pay her the same as what we would a male.'

In 2016, Pike was the first woman to win the Plumbing World award for Excellence in Plumbing and Drainlaying.

She said the industry, as a whole, was becoming more open to female tradies.

'I do feel there are some dinosaurs left, but I feel its more of a generational thing than what is really going on in the trades,' she said.

'There are people of that generation who can be dicks about it.'

Pike said employers needed to make sure they found the right person for the job, regardless of gender.

'Plumbing can be a really hard and really messy job and I think that, generally males are purpose-built for it but that's not to say woman can't do it too. You have to make sure it's the right person for the job, male or female.'

Jonathan Ives, general Manager of specialty recruitment company OneStaff, said companies needed to ensure wage parity.

The 20 per cent wage gap in the trades was nearly double that of the average gender pay gap in New Zealand, the report found.

According to Stats NZ, the average gender wage gap across all industries was 11.8 per cent.

Women represented only around 14 per cent of the more than 10,000 people surveyed by OneStaff.

According to the authors of the report, it was likely that the pay gap has more to do with the roles worked than any perceived difference in work ethic.

'[The gap] doesn't explicitly point to an inherent gender bias across the industries that took part in the survey, but it's something that employers should be looking at seriously.'

OneStaff general manager Jonathan Ives said of the six core sectors surveyed, only the commercial and hospitality sectors had achieved gender wage parity.

'While we applaud the commercial and hospitality sectors for bridging the gender pay gap, there's work yet to be done in all other sectors surveyed,' Ives said.

'Our advice is if there are women working the same jobs as men for less money, it should be promptly addressed. When it comes to job happiness and satisfaction, equal pay and equal opportunities are critical.'

The What's My Rate report also found workers based in Northland and Auckland were paid the highest at $25 an hour.

Tradesmen in Palmerston North and the West Coast were paid the lowest at $21 an hour.