Report finds gender, ethnic disparities in NZ pay gap: Pacific women the hardest-hit

Friday, 7 October 2022

Pacific women across New Zealand are effectively working for no pay from now until 2023, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Saunoamaali’i Karanina Sumeo says.

Sumeo said the lowest income earners are Pasifika women and their annual income is, on average, 25% less than that of a Pākehā male.

“Pacific women earn, on average, $24,671 less than Pākehā men – that’s $474 a week. Due to the pay gap, Pacific women are effectively working for free from October 3 till the end of the year.”

Sumeo’s comments come amid the findings of a labour market report on gender pay that Māori and Pacific workers are still being paid less than their European counterparts.

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The Strategic Pay and MindTheGap's commissioned research on gender pay that was released this week found that men of European descent are paid more than everyone else on average.

The report indicated significant gaps, which could be reduced with mandatory reporting of pay rates, and suggested big organisations could do more to address the disparity.

In its latest research, the Human Rights Commission’s Pacific Pay Gap found that for every $1 a Pākehā man earns, a Pākehā woman earns 89c, an Asian man and a Māori man get 86c, an Asian woman receives 83c, a Pacific man and a Māori woman both earn 81c and a Pacific woman gets 75c.

Compared to the average hourly pay rate of European men, the latest report showed Pasifika men earn 22.9% less, Māori men 16.7% less and wāhine Māori 23% less.

“Asian men and women earn 10.8% and 17.4% less than European men, with Middle Eastern, Latin American and African workers at 19%,” the report stated.

“European women are at 11.9% less and women in the 'other ethnicity' group earn less than 22%.”

The report estimated it would cost an additional $17.6 billion a year in wages and salaries to raise average ethnic and gender pay to match that of Pākehā men – about 11% of the total wages and salaries.

While the overall gender pay gap had slightly improved over the past year, 16.7% from 18.5%, the Strategic Pay analysis found that more work was required.

Strategic Pay managing director Cathy Hendry said when the analysis is broadened to incorporate ethnicity, the enormity of the deficit experienced by women and ethnic minorities reinforces the need for employers to comprehensively address pay disparity.

'These disparities are not easy to fix – we need to address the systemic and structural gender and racial inequality which exists in the labour market and in society,' Hendry said.

She said the job evaluation systems could be helpful, but better data was required, and this included compulsory reporting of pay gaps in large private and core public sector organisations.

The Strategic Pay report is based on data from more than 192,000 employees in 1141 public, private and not for profit organisations.

The report also found that women had higher levels of qualifications than men on average, which should be expected to result in higher wage rates.

'Organisations need to play their part and address their own pay gaps and examine any unconscious bias in recruitment and promotions,' Hendry said.

“Employers could address inequities by putting in place a formal job evaluation system.”

Sumeo said for many Pacific families, closing the pay gap is the difference between surviving and thriving.

“The sad reality is that our Pacific families are missing out on health, security and freedom opportunities and experiences,” she said.

Sumeo said the Pacific Pay Gap Inquiry will launch its report next week with recommendations for the Government to urgently close the pay gap.