By 3 News online staff
A campaign launched around the equal pay issues claims New Zealand women will effectively be working for free for the rest of the year.
The YWCA wants to see the Pay Equality Bill introduced to Parliament, which aims to introduce a framework to ensure transparency around equal pay.
“The Equal Pay Act was introduced in 1972 and it made gains when it was introduced, but with the introduction of individual employment contracts people can’t actually find out that information now,” YWCA Auckland chief executive Monica Briggs told Firstline this morning.
The YWCA campaign to close the 10 percent gender pay gap comes as a voluntary code's been introduced to increase female representation on boards.
“We know that there’s very small numbers, particularly in New Zealand actually, of women leading New Zealand businesses,” she says.
The YWCA says only the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Brazil and Botswana have fewer female CEOs than New Zealand – with large amounts of New Zealand women instead working in roles such as clerical staffing and nursing.
“There’s lots of different components to it… traditionally women have been narrowly defined in certain occupational groups,” says Ms Briggs. “In New Zealand we know that that’s a particular issue because almost 50 percent of women in the labour force are employed in occupations where there’s 80 percent female domination.”
3 News