AGWN Seminar 1: Gender Pay Gap update
Te Aka Wāhine o Tāmaki/AGWN was delighted to host Alex Chadwick, Manager of the Gender Pay Gap Action Plan Taskforce, State Services Commission, for the first of its free seminar series events on Wednesday 29 May at the Auckland Policy Office.
Alex provided an update on the Gender Pay Gap Action Plan which was launched in Auckland in July 2018 and provided information on how you can address your own gender pay gap.
Key takeaways:
- Kiwi women earn, on average, 84 cents for every dollar men earn. Even in the same jobs. For Kiwi women aged 40-54 years, it’s 79c to every dollar. For women older than 54 years, it’s only 51c to every dollar.
- In 2018, the Public Service gender pay gap was 10.7%. This compares to the gender pay gap for the entire NZ workforce which was 9.2% (calculated using “median” rather than “mean” pay). Median pay is the middle amount of pay earned - half of employees earn less and half earn more.
- Eliminating the Gender Pay Gap is part of a much broader Diversity and Inclusion work programme across the Public Sector to ensure that employees are paid fairly and according to the value they add to the workplace, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or disability.
- In July 2018, the Government with Public Service Chief Executives and the PSA announced the Public Service Gender Pay Gap Action Plan. Goal of this plan is to accelerate progress of closing the gender pay gap in the Public Service. All CE’s have committed to closing gender pay gaps in their agencies and all 33 Public Service agencies are working to individual agency action plans.
- 10 Public Service agencies have joined the flexible work pilot and 3/4 of all agencies are actively working to achieve flexible working practices in their agencies.
- 1/3 third of agencies now report that they have no, or very small, gender pay gaps in starting salaries. A further 1/3 have concrete plans to introduce systems to ensure that gender is not a factor in starting salaries.
- 48.8% of women hold leadership positions in Public Service agencies (top 3 tiers).
- 15 agencies have already achieved gender balance (50:50) in their top three leadership tiers, ahead of the milestone in the Action Plan.
Many thanks to Alex for taking time out of her busy schedule to come and present to us and also thank you to the Auckland Policy Office for hosting the Seminar.
The AGWN Seminar series provides professional development and information on significant public sector initiatives. Seminar Two will be held on Tuesday 30 July 2019 with Lynne Allison, industrial psychologist and Team Leader Recruitment for NZ Customs. Lynne will be running a seminar on deciding when and how to make your next career move with plenty of practical advice on CV writing and interview skills. Keep an eye out for bookings which will open in early July.
Resources
Eliminating Public Service Gender Pay Gap Action Plan
