Project discussion: Pay Equity Statistics
Equal Pay (Disclosure) Amendment Bill
Member's Bill
Explanatory Note
TBA
Equal Pay (Disclosure) Amendment Bill
The Parliament of New Zealand enacts as follows:
1. Title
This Act is the Equal Pay (Disclosure) Amendment Act 2009.
2. Commencement
This Act comes into force on the 1 April 2010.
3. Purpose
The purpose of this Act is to improve pay equity and narrow the gender-pay gap by requiring large employers to publish annual statistics on pay equity in their businesses.
4. Principal Act Amended
This Act amends the Equal Pay Act 1972.
5. New section inserted
The following new section is inserted after section 17A:
"17B. Employers to publish pay equity statistics
"(1) Every employer shall publish annually information showing:
"(a) The average remuneration of its male employees; and
"(b) The average remuneration of its female employees; and
"(c) The difference between the two, expressed as a percentage of the average male remuneration of subsection (a).
"(2) This section does not apply to an employer with fewer than 100 employees."
Allows for naming and shaming of bad employers, while employers who actually have an excuse for having different averages can publish more information to tell us why, and we get to criticise them still if it's a horrible excuse. Yay!
Small suggestion:
"(c) The difference between the two, expressed as a percentage of the average male remuneration of subsection (a)."
Make this:
"(c) The difference between the two, consisting of at least the lower average clearly labeled as a percentage of the higher average."
Not a bad idea, but that might make it potentially confusing, with some being female / male remuneration, and others the opposite. And given that the problem is almost always that female pay lags male pay, sticking it that way round gives consistency and focuses on the problem. Still, an option to consider when it comes time to push it at an MP…
And yes, making employers explain the gap was a major motivation for the UK version.
I thought it wouldn't matter so long as you were forcing them to publishing the raw averages anyway, and there seemed a certain irony in assuming the male pay was the correct rate in all cases in a bill designed to fight sexism ;)
This concept is simple enough that I'd be tempted to push it now, especially given there's a lot of political capital in it. The Greens are all billed out at the moment, so they might have to wait… I'm sure Labour would love it though.
Oh yes, I agree on the irony. OTOH, if the aim is to highlight the general problem…
I agree that it is the perfect time to push this issue. The question is whether any of the politicians think so.